Toronto – Saturday night’s Bat For Lashes show at the Mod Club was in one word – awesome. I would hate to be the person who forgot that this was an early gig, stroll in around 9:30 and saw that the show was already on encore. If you are that person, you should post it on fml or something because it is that bad. Natasha Khan can really sing. There are some bands you go to see and you are like ‘wow this girl has a nice voice’ but rarely do you go to a show and you are like ‘holy crap this girl can sing’. I always thought she had a nice voice but to see it in person as she belts out tunes is different. Even Gary, who didn’t think much of Bat For Lashes before going to the show was impressed and mentioned she was ‘better then Feist’. If Earth was ever enslaved by an ancient, but deadly alien race and that our sole chance of survival depended on some one to sing to please the alien ant queen overlord, I would think that she was a good option.
I guess some information about the show would be nice. Since the Mod Club caters to ginos and 905ers on the weekends, the concert was an early one. We were there at 7 to watch Lewis and Clarke (which Gary will review). I don’t remember the last time I was at a show at 7. Maybe when I was a kid and I went to see Raffi or something. But I never saw Raffi. Anyways, Bat for Lashes went on around 8:30. The stage was adorned with Jesus figures, angels, dim lights and images of animals ..or as I like to call it – what you can get for 10$ at a 1970s garage sale from some really religious souther family who hunts on occasion. It did give the stage a more intimate maybe slightly spiritualish kind of feeling I guess.
Starting with the song ‘Glass’, Bat For Lashes played a 70 minute set that consisted of material from both albums, but primarily focusing on Two Suns. We even got a Pixie-esque two versions of Daniel – an early stripped down acoustic sounding version, as well as the set ending normal version. This was the first show of the North American leg of their tour and Natasha seemed genuinely happy to be there. Her banter in between songs mostly consisted of thanking the fans, giving a shout out to family who was in attendance and telling jokes that the crowd forgot to laugh at, prompting a nice self deprecating moment (“aww, nobody laughed at my joke”). One of the things I noticed at the concert was how much different the two primary hits of Bat For Lashes were from the rest of the music. Both ‘Whats a Girl to Do’ and ‘Daniel’ are up tempo, almost dancey electroish numbers while a majority of the songs are slower paced with more focus on the vocals. Both work well because of the strength of Natasha Khans voice. It is ultimately Bat For Lashes #1 weapon, although the rest of the band was quite fantastic as well. I had no idea Charlotte Hatherly (of Ash) was in the band. That was a pretty pleasant surprise. The girl from New Young Pony Club was the girl behind the drums, providing a tribalish beats to a lot of the songs. Some guy named Ben was the multi instrumentalist. The band used a lot of different instruments, I have no idea what half of them were. Natasha herself primarily switched between singing/dancing and keyboard duties, donning the guitar for one or two numbers.
All in all, a great way to start off the night for all who attended. I highly recommend checking out the show if they are in your area.