(We here at ThatRockBlog.com enjoy Zee Avi so much, we won't even make fun of her in the caption. So no munchkin jokes. Tempting though. © 2009 Benjamin Luk.)
Times have changed. New artists can now get discovered and signed simply by uploading YouTube videos. Within a month of releasing a debut album, you can now find yourself touring the US with Pete Yorn. Also, ukuleles are sexy again. Still not entirely sure how that happened, but small things seem to be in right now, which may be why Zee Avi seems to have gotten so big.
The Media Club is small. But that's okay because Zee's music is better suited for an intimate space than, say, Lady Gaga. And though the two acts played Vancouver on the same night (and in fact, on the same city block), both venues were packed with fans who knew what they wanted. One group wanted glamour, spectacle and pizzazz; the other was perfectly content with minimalism and storytelling. I was part of the latter group, and found it relentlessly charming that Zee came out onstage and started setting up her equipment well before she played a chord. Taking a moment to greet her fans in the front row literally two feet away from her, and with a smile that could light up a wake, she asked us all to snap along with her for "Poppy". Harris and Gabe, her bassist and drummer, joined in humbly shortly after. The music itself made me think of rainy nights spent cozily indoors, but "Poppy" is actually about the repercussions of drug abuse. Norah Jones, she ain't.
(We could barely see her behind that massive ukulele. © 2009 Benjamin Luk.)
The Media Club is small. But that's okay because Zee's music is better suited for an intimate space than, say, Lady Gaga. And though the two acts played Vancouver on the same night (and in fact, on the same city block), both venues were packed with fans who knew what they wanted. One group wanted glamour, spectacle and pizzazz; the other was perfectly content with minimalism and storytelling. I was part of the latter group, and found it relentlessly charming that Zee came out onstage and started setting up her equipment well before she played a chord. Taking a moment to greet her fans in the front row literally two feet away from her, and with a smile that could light up a wake, she asked us all to snap along with her for "Poppy". Harris and Gabe, her bassist and drummer, joined in humbly shortly after. The music itself made me think of rainy nights spent cozily indoors, but "Poppy" is actually about the repercussions of drug abuse. Norah Jones, she ain't.
(We could barely see her behind that massive ukulele. © 2009 Benjamin Luk.)
Covering Interpol's "Slow Hands" and then treating us to "The Traveler", a song she only ever performs live, her quiet contentedness had her audience in the best of moods. Though her lyrics were heavy at times, it was obvious she loved playing in Vancouver as much as we loved her, and she kept things lighthearted between songs. After "Honey Bee", a sweet love ballad that reads like a children's book, she told us that she had a friend who once said, "Zee, you're like the queen of breakup songs," to which she quipped, "No, that belongs to Air Supply." More like a night in with a close friend than a concert, Zee and bassist Harris spent much of the night cracking wise about Singaporean politics, Malay and English coming together to form 'Manglish' and Lady Gaga performing next door. As she carried on whole conversations with her fans on more than one occasion, it was the closest I'd felt to a performer in months. The audience must have felt the same way because it took no prompting for them to sing along to the trumpet bit from "Just You and Me".
Soon enough, the evening was drawing to a close. Zee announced she had one song left, put down her uke and Harris took up a guitar. From the moment he slid his capo to the fifth fret and left his fingers sitting on a G, I knew: Morrissey's "First of the Gang to Die". Zee was passionate with her vocals and though Harris flubbed a chord or two (B minor is tough!), no one seemed to notice. Closing on a somewhat unsatisfying encore cover of "I Fought the Law" seemed a strange choice too, but the overall evening was an astounding success, if a bit shorter than we'd expected.
Soon enough, the evening was drawing to a close. Zee announced she had one song left, put down her uke and Harris took up a guitar. From the moment he slid his capo to the fifth fret and left his fingers sitting on a G, I knew: Morrissey's "First of the Gang to Die". Zee was passionate with her vocals and though Harris flubbed a chord or two (B minor is tough!), no one seemed to notice. Closing on a somewhat unsatisfying encore cover of "I Fought the Law" seemed a strange choice too, but the overall evening was an astounding success, if a bit shorter than we'd expected.
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