If you think Feist is overexposed and you wish that other girl would just go into rehab and stay there, then your ears might be ready for some Basia Bulat. Basia is from London, Ontario, signed to Rough Trade Records, and released her first full length, “Oh, My Darling” this past year.
Basia has played quite a few shows around Toronto this past year, so I was pretty excited to finally be able to see her play so close to my house. She was scheduled to hit the stage at 10:30, so grabbed my camera ready to snap some shots. I quickly found out that I was out of film. I had a quick look around my place and realized that the only film I had in my house was for my Polaroid 600. I thought what the heck, I’ll try out my Polaroid skills. Might be interesting. It wasn’t.
I got to Lee’s about 20 minutes early and was able to find a nice spot right in front of the stage behind Frank Yang (chromewaves). Basia took the stage supported by her two ‘we make our own dresses’ friends on the violin and ukulele, and her brother on percussion. To say that Basia is easy on the eyes would be an understatement. She is a cutie that’s for sure, but don’t let my physical description of her take away from her talent. She is a great song writer with a warm stage presence. Her alt-country twang and melodies will get you boppin’, but she can also slow it down to make you wish you were running bare foot through a field of wet dewy grass in the early morning. You know, kind of like a Tide commercial.
A couple songs in I figured it was time to snap a couple pictures. So I stepped in front of Frank and did the best as I could. As my camera ejected each picture with the oh so familiar ‘cha cha grrrrrrrr’ rythm, I set it on the stage to develop. I didn’t shake them. You’re not supposed to shake them.
Frank didn’t look impressed.
4/5 – Can’t wait to see Basia again
Video HERE