Bird Calling, Talent Shows and Dance Parties

Last Friday, Messiah College hosted Feist for the first concert of the semester. The band is fronted by one of Canada's most ubiquitous collaborators, Indie-Rock diva Leslie Feist. However, in a very un-diva-like string of events, she shared her spotlight with various unprepared concert attendees.Feist's off-the-cuff banter with the audience gave the show a unique, intimate atmosphere. She seemed to want the crowd to experience her songs in an entirely different way than a mere listen to her discography would produce.

Before her acoustic ballad, "The Park," she imitated a bird call. Encouraging the audience members to join her in creating nature noises, she set the scene, "We are in the park. If you squint up, you will see the night sky."

She also shed the typical rock star mystique by showing the audience how some of her guitar's sound effects worked. Feist didn't stop at merely addressing the audience. After her initial string of slow songs, a voice from the audience suggested that she "make them dance."

"Who?" Leslie Feist joked, "The band? Dance, monkeys, dance!" She decided to comply with the request, not by making her band members dance, but by inviting four women from the audience to get on stage to dance during their energetic rendition of "I Feel it All," which was slightly heavier than the album version.

After slowing down the show by singing a few cover songs without the band, Feist decided to throw an impromptu talent show. She first invited a pianist named Danny onto the stage. He played a long piano solo, where the band members joined in on the drums and the xylophone at the end. After turning down a few offers from people with stupid human tricks like chain saw noises, she finally accepted an offer from a nervous woman who played a short self-written ballad.

The second act was received less enthusiastically than the first. In response, Feist took a break from the talent show to sit down at the piano for two mellow songs, "The Water," and "Gatekeeper." The rolling piano beats created a welcome break from the amateur performances, but Feist wasn't ready to put her talent show to rest just yet. When she opened up the stage for one more act, a woman from the audience offered to play a Regina Spektor song.

Feist agreed to let the woman collaborate with another volunteer who wanted to help with vocals. While the two strangers met to discuss their act, Feist joked around with the audience. "Meanwhile we'll just fill some time with this one," she said, segueing into her best-known song, "Mushaboom."

When the two audience members collaborated to sing Regina Spektor's "Chemo Limo," they were met with resounding boos. After performing, the woman even briefly apologized for choosing a Regina Spektor song, worrying that her similarity to Feist may have been insulting.

Although the concert's Facebook event page claimed that Feist is "this year's Regina Spektor," the two women put on very different shows. While both have some musical similarities and appeal to the same demographic, their stage presences could not have been more different. When she performed at Messiah College last January, Regina Spektor seemed nervous and paused little to speak between sets. Conversely, Feist was at ease, talking for long stretches between her songs. Spektor characteristically experimented with countless vocal timbres, while Feist stuck with her simple, raspy, yet ethereal soprano.

Feist handled the unspoken comparison well. She joked "Ooh, I hear she caused a kerfuffle last time she was here," in reference to the several complaints the college received after Spektor's show last year. Spektor had used some rough language after making a mistake in one of her songs.

After the crowd shunned the last performance in Leslie Feist's makeshift talent show, the band returned to their own music, playing "1,2,3,4" the hit single off of their newest album, "The Reminder." They exited the stage, but quickly returned for a brief encore, which included a rocked-up version of the retro-inspired "Sea Lion Woman" and the title track off of the band's first album, "Let It Die."

Perhaps the most whimsical concert Messiah College has hosted in years, Feist created a truly memorable night. However, the best moments of the evening weren't found in the unexpected audience interactions, but in the surprising twists on favorite songs and in experiencing well-crafted lyrics in new ways.