Toronto – With performers of a more intimate nature, making a strong connection with the audience often makes the difference between a good show and a great show. A good example of this is Sharon Van Etten. Not only is she an incredible performer with great songs, but her onstage demeanor is such that she ends up totally charming those in attendance. This is not quite the case with Marissa Nadler.
Now don’t get me wrong, Nadler did put in a solid, enjoyable performance. She has an excellent voice and displayed that voice as she played songs from throughout her career, but by her own admission, she needs to work on her stage banter. Very little was said to the crowd other than a few kind of awkward statements here and there and that’s fine, I suppose. A lot of performers prefer to let their music speak for them to good effect and Nadler certainly had the crowd’s attention. I heard nary a peep from the crowd throughout her set.
Sonically, her set was quite interesting. Performing solo for the first part of her set before being joined by a cellist and opener Mike Fiore, aka Faces On Film, Nadler offered up some moody, dreamy folk-based music that definitely impressed. Also impressive was Fiore’s opening set. Not having heard of Faces On Film before this show, I enjoyed his rootsy songs and strong voice. He did have a bit of a snag in his set though when he attempted to play what i believe was an omnichord. Apparently, he’d been expecting the thing to die on him any day now and tonight was the night. He checked it intermittently for the remainder of his set, but to no avail. I guess he’ll have to adjust his set accordingly for the rest of the tour.