2009年 Jul 1日 Wednesday, 22:19

I quite enjoyed seeing Madeleine Peyroux as Heidi and I had tickets to her last concert in Toronto (2007) but we had to cancel at the last minute because of a business trip.

I don't know a ton about Madeleine Peyroux but I do recall that she went "missing" around the time that her excellent Careless Love CD was released, with rumours that she had freaked out from all the attention. I don't know if this is half-way true, but it now seem plausible as Peyroux seems quite awkward and uncomfortable being on stage. She carries herself well, but it seems like it takes a fair amount of effort ( her habit of bending and straightening her hat when she puts the guitar down is a clue}.

She is a very talented singer, and seems effortlessly to play with the lyrics to every song in her repertoire. I'm sure she could improvise a tune for the phone book and it would be gorgeous.

Her band is also highly skilled, didn't catch their names but all were great musicians. The bass and drum players seems to know it, as they had quite smug expressions during most of the evening.

Overall it was a really good performance, even though she didn't sing my favourite song [ Between the Bars ], or Heidi's [ Blue Alert ].

Maybe next time.

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I was more than a little impressed with opening act Royal Wood, a Toronto based singer-songwriter who put in a really solid set, with only himself and a backing guitarist (again, didn't catch the name).