FEQ: Patrick Watson works his magic

With a few notes, after a solid performance by the Spoons, Patrick Watson, like a magician, teleported the audience into a completely different universe, totally aerial and hovering. The likeable character gave another great performance full of magic.

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The friendly singer-keyboardist always manages to press the right buttons to provoke emotion and celestial moments.

In the smoke and accompanied by bassist Mikhail Stein, drummer-percussionist Andrew Barr, backing vocalist Ariel Engle (La Force) and a string quartet, he launched his performance with the single Lost With You at the Parc de la Francophonie.

» Hello everyone. How are you tonight? I’m so happy to be here. This is my favorite place to play outside,” he said, before Big Bird in a Small Cage with bird noises, courtesy of the Barr Brothers drummer.

The Wave, A Mermaid in Lisbon, Man Like You, written for his sona grander version of Little Moments and Look at You, with its little piano notes, were of great beauty. The sound was impeccable and enveloping. Everyone was in a kind of bubble and above all in tune.

“Thank you for a magical evening, Quebec,” he said, leaving the boards, after Here Comes the River.

It didn’t take him long to return to the stage to offer, with Fernie, who had performed at the start of the evening, for a vibrant interpretation of Broken. Fernie lifted the audience with her almighty voice.

He continued with a superb Lighthouse, in a particular atmosphere, after having asked the technicians to turn off the lights on the site. A beautiful moment. He concluded his performance with the grandiose To Build a Home of the British formation The Cinematic Orchestra.

With all the services offered at this place, we can say, without being mistaken, that Patrick Watson totally masters this scenic environment. It always offers great evenings of music. Which he did again.

Full of guitars

We will say what we want. There’s nothing that can beat a good rock « show » with sharp guitars. This is what the Texan formation Spoon offered us, yesterday, at the Parc de la Francophonie.

It’s nice to pretend that rock is dead and buried deep, but there are still a lot of good bands that thrive in this niche. That’s what the Spoons have been doing for over 20 years now and that’s what they did on their very first visit to Quebec.

In front of a good crowd, at the Parc de la Francophonie, the quintet from Austin, Texas, led by singer Britt Daniels, certainly won new fans.

It must be said that the take-off was done with force with Held of Smog formation. Britt Daniel and Alex Fischel’s six strings were powerful and sharp. We followed in the same atmosphere with The Devil and Mister Jones and Don’t You Evah.

“Quebec City, good to see you. It’s our first time here. I wonder why? “, Launched the singer-guitarist, who seemed surprised to see a fan, in front of him, someone with a jersey of the formation.

Stating that the group often came to Montreal, he must have asked many questions when he heard the boos of some spectators.

The musical cohesion among the Spoons was total. We really like the contribution and the obvious passion that is present in the keyboardist-guitarist Geraldo Larios and the square playing of drummer Jim Eno.

The group ended its performance with a stripping version of Rent I Pay from the album They Want My Soul. We want to see them again in Quebec.

Interesting discoveries

At the start of the evening, around supper time, the public present was treated to wonderful discoveries, especially with Fernie, who, with her two musicians and her superb voice, offered beautiful musical colors. It sounded very good.

Karen Pinette-Fontaine, who followed, did much the same with her Kanen project. The young woman from the Innu community of Uashat mak Man-Utenam, on the North Shore, experienced a beautiful baptism of fire at the Summer Festival. It was haunting and promising. People listened to him. Which is not easy with a performance at 6:25 p.m. Which is definitely a good sign.

“Thank you for listening to Aboriginal artists,” she said towards the end of her performance.

Accompanied by a string quartet, Basia Bulat offered a great moment, at the very end of her show, with a long version of Love is at the End of the World from his latest album The Garden. It was a first for the Montrealer of Polish origins at the FEQ and we felt that she had a lot of fun.

A week after performing in England, Toronto’s JP Saxe provided good times with his introspective love songs. He managed to chant the words « Fuck ’em All » during the 3 minute play.

“If you came to see me, it’s because you’ve already been injured. You are able to do that, ”launched the 29-year-old redhead, who was performing for the very first time in the Old Capital.