SXSW is great for making new discoveries and searching out something you’ve never heard before, but it also makes for a good opportunity to see old favourites in a different setting. With that in mind, I ventured out on Saturday afternoon to check out Basia Bulat’s set at The Ginger Man.
With Bulat easily able to sell out venues back home (as she did recently at The Mod Club), it was nice to see her perform in the confines of the Ginger Man’s small outdoor stage. She seemed to be enjoying it too, musing on the possibility of bringing an Elton John-esque riser for herself and her piano (“But that’s for next year.”), roaming out into the audience from time to time and even sitting down next to some guy seated up front and serenading him. She took the time to introduce her bandmates, all of them mainstays of the Toronto music scene, and also made a point of hyping up backing vocalist Tamara Lindeman’s set later that night performing as part of Lavender Country (Lindeman was also playing a few shows as The Weather Station during SXSW).
In addition to playing some tunes off of her Jim James produced Good Advice album, Bulat closed out her set without her band, playing a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You In The End” as a nod to Austin, adding that true love could maybe even find us all at South By Southwest.