A Fine Frenzy is the music of 23 year-old Alison Sudol, one of the freshest faces and best of the emerging talent in the commercial pop world. (Yes, I listen to commercial pop sometimes. Got a problem? Huff an ass.) Although signed to Virgin Records, you probably haven't heard a lot from her, seeing as how unlike Colbie Caillat, she isn't spreading from bad radio station to bad radio station like a searing case of aural herpes and unlike Brandi Carlile, did not become famous overnight just because one of her songs was featured in an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Rather, it was Alison's contemporary blending of classical piano arrangements, 50's and 60's pop and swing influences and refreshingly honest vocals that are only just now beginning to get her some recognition. Off the bat, she sounds a bit like Ingrid Michaelson (sans the redundancy of most of her lyrics) and Keane (sans sounding like a dude) if the two of them were crammed into a Blendtec to make for an exquisitely delicate smoothie of awesome.
The Media Club only holds about 150 people and because I was a fan and was willing to endure the irritatingly homoerotic Ferras opening for her, I was right at the front of the pack when the second opener Ben's Brother took the stage. (You know them as the guys singing the latest Dentyne Ice commercial.) I had no idea they were going to be on the billing and was pleasantly surprised to see "the Dentyne Ice guys" performing when I'd only heard of them a week ago. Such is life when you run a music blog, leeching musical knowledge off everyone around you. Anyway, when they left and the house music came back on, an excited, anticipatory silence fell upon the room. She'd be on within minutes.
We saw her well before she even went onstage. Her two backing musicians, a drummer and a second keyboardist, casually sauntered to their instruments and with the grace of operating surgeons, began to build the haunting, otherworldly musical backdrop that opens "Come On, Come Out". As though the name of the song itself were a message directed to Alison, we soon spotted her peeking out excitedly from behind the backstage curtain, waiting for some invisible cue. Finally, with the body language of a precocious little girl at her first talent show, she made her way to her piano, a digital keyboard hidden in a white, wooden piano shell, and the moment she began to play, the transformation was palpable. In the split second before she started to sing, she went from cautious little girl to seasoned, veteran performer.
Crowd favourites "You Picked Me" and "Borrowed Time" had the room swaying softly and tapping their feet but the other photographers in the room nearly ruined the show by blinding Alison with bright flashes every time she looked up. (I know better than to do that, thank God.) However, being the trooper that she was, Alison didn't miss a note. Switching back and forth between sultry lounge singer when she was singing and endearing girlishness when she wasn't, we listened with rapt attention. For the hour that she played, we listened to tales of lost love, unlikely friendships and watching paintings come to life, but never in a way that seemed dull or contrived.
(Photo by Shannon Mackay.)
"The Minnow & The Trout" turned out to be the highlight of the evening, due to the fact that "Almost Lover" sounded a touch hollow without the soft strings from the recorded version filling out the background. Alison got us all to sing the last chorus though, visibly beaming from the fact that everyone in the front row, myself included, knew the words. Ending on "Rangers" and with an encore of a brand new song called "What I Wouldn't Do", where she got up from her piano stool and picked up a guitar (although she didn't really play it, strumming softly while her backing band picked up the slack), she finally left the stage with a puckish and beguiling curtsey. Holy crap, is Alison Sudol ever puckish and beguiling. I know I'm beguiled.
And yes, I'm quite aware that a large part of my rave review has something to do with how much of a fox Alison Sudol actually is. Hate mail is appreciated, but remember, I still detest Chad Kroeger so I must be doing something right. Until next time.
