Martha Wainwright
Rialto
November 16 2016
Martha was the opening act of M pour Montreal festival this year.
Martha was the opening act of M pour Montreal festival this year.
The festival was created to help our local talent shine in front of promoters from all around the globe.
Martha is a one of a kind artist that I love to go listen to, but mostly watch because she is quite the entertainer.
She is really funny, talented, great at storytelling, quite a good musician, goofy, but she also looks like she has ADHD.
It is a great part of her charm that at every show she forgets the lyrics to her songs or how they start or forgets parts of them while playing. She usually asks someone or restarts the song. She has a great sense of derision about it and it is great to watch her for that alone.
Since the festival is all about promoting artists so they can shine elsewhere, i wonder how promoters see Martha when she cant even finish or start her own songs...
But I really like her and always up to see her shows when she is around.
The next song is the first time she plays it live and the first time playing it with the bassist so it ends up magical obviously with a Martha touch.
That night Martha was joined on stage by a piano player, a stand-up bassist and her cousin for some songs.
She showed up dressed to impress in a ... jumpsuit!
During the set she played a mix of new songs, covers and few older songs.
On Traveller, she was joined by her cousin while her pianist was playing instruments at the same time.
She goes on to play a weird song, but with her usual craziness it just works out great.
The next song is the first time she plays it live and the first time playing it with the bassist so it ends up magical obviously with a Martha touch.
She played a song for Safia Nolin which is a cover of a Gerry Boulet song and singing it with a charming french quebecois accent to accentuate that it is a Gerry song.
It is funny and great to hear.
While playing the song, Martha asks forgiveness when she misses a few chords, but it doesnt matter to her and she continues to play nonetheless.
She then speaks to the crowd in her usual half French half English sentences and mentions it in the middle of it all which makes it more funny to everyone.
Her next song is one of those songs that she just recorded, but cant remember how it starts.
She argues a few minutes with her pianist and the laugh about it.
"Franci" was really great live with an intense guitar riff mixed with her great voice.
It doesnt matter that she missed a few beats and lyrics because it is that good.
"So Down" is also really good, played with an electric guitar and since the song is played really fast with a lot of beats it feels fresh since it is a departure from most of what Martha usually plays.
The synths also add a lot to the song mixed with the different tempo of the song which goes fast then slow and starts again strong.
She wanted to play "Francis" which is a new song written by her brother Rufus, but she couldnt remember the lyrics.
She asks her entourage to see if anyone printed out the lyrics, but no one did..."fuck!"
She decided to try and improvise if needs be...so of course she couldnt remember the lyrics and does her improvisation and ends the song quickly with super fake lyrics.
Great little moment with the crowd because of this.
After a few other songs, she did an encore which meant it was almost time to go unfortunately.
She sang a Leonard Cohen song with lyrics on a piece of paper to end the festivities.
Great show and looking forward to her next one in April!
Setlist:
Groenland
Rialto
November 16 2016
I like Groenland and i've seen them once at Osheaga and also opening for another band not long ago.
The only difference that night was that everyone was sitting on chairs at the Rialto...
You might think it's not a big deal, but it is since the group offers an energetic electro/jazz/pop performance that you need to dance too to really appreciate fully.
This show is also used to promote them worldwide as part of M pour Montreal.
The performance was really good and energetic.
On stage were quite a few musicians including a cello player, violinist, someone on the synths, a bassist, drummer and the singer.
We heard quite a lot of good songs that could ignite some great parties and the crowd was there to clap along to the beats.
The singer had a great deep voice and the bassist was having quite a good time jumping around.
Overall good show and great opener band for Martha.
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