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By Sarah Lemmon Photos by sprout

After a summer of unpredictable weather, Tuesday August 5th was blessed with a beautiful evening.

Bodies and blankets consumed Deer Lake Park. The lemonade line was long, but opening band, “The Weakerthans,” provided a nice distraction for the ears as the audience gathered Tuesday night. For an opening band they did their job, but had me worried, they hardly met the demands of an outdoor stage. They weren’t very interesting visually. I heard a fan say, “I just want Feist to come out. I don’t want to listen to them.”

Leslie Feist filled the borderless venue without a problem during her opening number “When I was a Young Girl.” She reminded the audience she was not just a voice by rocking out on her guitar and had them off their blankets on onto their feet within seconds.

Born in Nova Scotia, and raised in Calgary, Canada is proud to have their name attached to the indie artist. Her unique performance proves that she is more than an Apple commercial. Feist deserves much more than a place in a playlist, she is an artist that needs to be seen.

In the music industry most artists focus on what they sound like. Feist has taken music to another level and has added visual art to her performance. Working onstage behind her were two shadow puppet artists. They executed a show of animated paintings by using a projector to build images onto the back scrim. Halfway through the evening the audience realizes that all the art they are being fed has been created live; astonishing, breathtaking, visuals that are connected to every emotion or lyric that Feist is singing.

The Grammy-nominated performer and her color coordinated four-man band were pleased to be in Vancouver. “We are on the coast, and that doesn’t happen every night,” they said after admitting that if they weren’t playing the show they’d be at home watching ‘Lost.’

Feist has been recognized as a songwriter as well as an innovative interpreter of other artist’s songs. She bargained with her fans, saying she would play the requested “Sea Lion Woman” if they would listen to her Lucinda Williams cover of “Over Time.”

She continued to satisfy her audience with favorites such as “Mushaboom”, “I Feel It All” and her world famous, “1234,” and but on the grass, next to the moonlit water, her quieter songs such as “Limit to your Love” and “So Sorry” seemed to draw more emotion and connection from them; a group that had no trouble lending their voices in choral song when asked to do so. The evening ended on a sad, but beautiful note with her ballad “Let it Die.”

I have to admit, I was consumed in the visual art of the evening. Playing music doesn’t cut it anymore; our generation has been spoiled by entertainment; artists have to live up to a new standard and add dimensions to their music. That said; Leslie Feist excels beyond expectation.

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