Patrick Watson! I Haven’t seen this guy play a show in a very long time. To give you an idea of how long, the last time I watched/photographed Patrick Watson play a show, it was a coffee shop in the University of BC student union building, and Dan Mangan was opening. Certainly, things have progressed a lot for Watson in the intervening years, and now here he is, playing a long-sold-out show at the Commodore. As I wandered about the room to find a decent shooting location (immediate stagefront access at this point would have been nigh impossible, after being en-route from another show), I noticed a few things. One, a very crowded stage, with instruments all bundled up towards the front. Two, some intriguing-looking light ‘bubble’ on red-feather-boa-wrapped stands behind said instruments. Three, Watson himself was quietly participating in his soundcheck, which is not something you often see once a band hits ‘Commodore Level’ shows. Only intermittently did people in the gathering audience notice their star was already on stage, and a cheer would undulate through the crowd on those two occasions. Watson was set up with a grand piano towards the left of the stage – can you imagine being in a touring rock/folk band hauling a grand around?! – and he spent the first two song seated behind it. He opened the set with “Love Song For Robots.” The stage was dark and jam-packed with musicians – Robbie Kuster on his sideways drums at the right of the stage, bass player Mishka Stein behind him, then in the middle of the stage, guitar player Joe Grass, with a gal behind whose name I regrettably did not catch and can’t seem to find, and likewise with the French horn player who was situated behind the piano. “Good Morning Mr. Wolf” came up shortly. Watson and his band have always had an arty, experimental vibe to their songs. Billed as a band name rather than a guy with a bunch of musicians, they are largely longterm collaborators and band members, I remember that long ago coffee-shop set included all kinds of weird things. Bottles and spoons and balloons – they played objects as well as instruments. Tonight, the music seemed largely to be produced by legitimate instruments, save for the borderline, slightly-hilarious interlude of the saw later in the set, played as a solo by Kuster as an adorable mimic of the lyrical melody. The band can get a very washy, Pink Floyd kind of vibe going at times. I highly approve of this.
The light bubbles along the back of the stage turned out to be super cool. Sure, photographically, it made for a tragic set to try and shoot, but the feel they lent to the show was appropriate and fun to watch. They would flash in sync with the music, or get brighter or dimmer depending on the tone of the song, and were even capable of being filled with smoke, which leaked out of them like they were on fire. The show was stupendously fun overall. Watson grins like a maniac much of the time and has a very quick speaking voice when he addresses the crowd like a mad genius. He jumps from instrument to instrument like it’s no big thing. Much of his time was spent at the piano, but when he was singing at a mic up front, he would often fiddle about with a couple of pedals that were seated on top of the piano, or crack out a guitar or a bullhorn. The audience was hushed right down for an a capella version of “Man Like You.” The room shushed itself in a roll as the band cluttered around one mic. It turns out it was more an acoustic, rather than a capella version. This is where Kuster the ‘Saw Jedi’ came out to warble his way into the crowd’s collective heart. Touchingly, Watson also told us a brief story of a longtime fan whose family wrote to him to ask if she could come to his show as she was battling cancer. She unfortunately passed away before the show happened, but he invited out her family anyhow, and fittingly dedicated “Into Giants” to her. The band stayed at the front and sang this in a gentle gang-vocal style. Near the end, they plugged back in and grew the song to an amazing and uplifting crescendo.
Another kind of oddball yet somehow refreshing thing is that the band members are not shy about technical stuff. If they need their monitor mix changed they will just outright say it – no subtlety here. Watson directed a big reverb effect onto his mic later in the set and then spent time amping the effect up on his end as well, in order to introduce the song “Adventures In Your Own Backyard” like he was announcing an epic action movie. There was a three song encore, the last song of which, Big Bird In A Small Cage,” Watson did solo at the piano. He got the crowd to whistle along and sing some of the lines – proper ‘Simon Says’ style audience participation. Patrick Watson is super engaging as a performer, choreographs his sets beautifully from songs to instruments to band members to stage design, the band is clearly having acres of fun on stage, and all this transmits out to the audience. They know they are getting a great show, and in turn are having just as much fun watching.
