Talk about a ‘one-man band’

November 16th, 2006 posted by robb

Jamie Lidell
Lee’s Palace – 11.14.06
Rating: 7.5/10

Tuesday night marked the return of Warp Records star Jamie Lidell to Lee’s Palace. After the widespread success of his sophomore album, ‘Multiply’, Lidell has toured extensively across North America, solidifying his stature in the music industry with notable stops such as the Coachella Arts and Music Festival in California.

Simply put, his brand of neo-soul and electronic funk has taken audiences by storm, transcending genre barriers and bringing punks, hipsters, funksters, and hip hoppers alike together on the dance floor. In fact, Rob Gordon, drummer from hardcore indie band, ‘From Fiction’, explained to me before the show how ‘Lidell’s live performance was simply hair-raising’. Case and point. Having been the supporting act at the Habourfront Centre during his last visit, Tuesday night was Lidell’s chance to shine and have some fun with his own headlining performance.

Walking into Lee’s Palace many people were surprised to see the simple stage setup of two laptops, a synthesizer and a beat machine. What they didn’t realize was that that’s all it would take for Lidell to put on his creative, funkified performance. At 10:35pm, Lidell rushed back and forth off the stage, toying with the audience as their excitement and anticipation grew. After a couple minutes of play-time with the crowd, Lidell returned to the stage wearing what looked like a garbage bag for a hoodie, and a giant smile on his face. He eased everyone into his high-energy performance singing a slow ballad of the chance everyone wishes they took with ‘Game of Fools’. From the get go, Lidell displayed his incredible soul and passion for the words he was singing, sounding like a white Al Green at times, and like Prince during songs like ‘When I come back around’.

As the show progressed, one thing became perfectly clear; Jamie Lidell has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. What was most impressive was the way Lidell recreated some of his songs with the aid of nothing more than his own voice. The beginnings of ‘A little bit more’ featured Lidell beat boxing and looping his own voice, adding the odd harmony and tune. The result was a fast-paced layering of what sounded like fifty Jamie Lidell’s singing in unison (you have to see it to believe it). Once the music was created, he stepped out from behind his ‘live studio’ and sang his heart out about a girl who wanted too much. Another highlight was his performance of ‘What’s the use’, which featured Lidell singing flawlessly overtop of Eminem’s ‘Guilty conscience’ booming from the incredible sound system at Lee’s Palace.

The show ended appropriately with Lidell doing an encore performance of his smash single ‘Multiply’. As he crawled across the stage looking for audience members to sing along with him, it was clear that Lidell was having a lot of fun playing for this enthusiastic Toronto crowd. Although his set was very short – lasting a mere 45 minutes – Lidell put all of his heart and soul into the performance, yet again leaving his mark on our city. This was my second time seeing Lidell do his thing, and it has only gotten better. I recommend both his music and his live show to anyone and everyone. But don’t worry, if you missed him this time, he promised to be back in the near future supporting his new album set to drop in 2007.

Reviewed by: Craig Hill

Section: Uncategorized