I love it when a band’s live performance transcends their recording sound. The two acts I saw last night at CityFolk might never have caught my attention if I was just hearing them on the radio, but in a live setting, both knew exactly how to galvanize and charm a sweaty Ottawa crowd.
Elle King was unbeknownst to me beyond her catchy single “Ex’s and Oh’s,” which I understand is fairly popular among the young kids. King isn’t just riding off the success of a single, though. She’s a charismatic performer with an engaging repertoire of country and blues-rock. Early in her set I was worried that her band would drown her voice out, but I was happily mistaken. King’s voice is distinctively raspy and she used it to great effect, especially in a cover of the Beatles’ “Oh Darlin’.”
The Ravenlaw Stage crowd was already stoked after King’s performance and ready for more once St. Paul and the Broken Bones took to the stage. The blues and soul ensemble from Birmingham, Alabama fed off this energy. From the moment he stepped in front of the microphone wearing a pair of silver sequin-studded shoes, frontman Paul Janeway had the crowd in his sway. A small man with a tremendous voice, Janeway brought a level of theatricality to his performance that I simply didn’t expect.
I also expected the surprisingly sensual dance interludes. I didn’t expect him to actually throw himself to the ground in the middle of a song and I didn’t expect him to take one of his shoes off and bang it on the stage while performing a mournful love ballad. I was impressed with his total devotion to an outrageous onstage persona, and equally impressed with the band backing him up. The ensemble, which includes a three-man horn section and a bass guitarist from Canada (how does a Canadian bass guitarist get taken in by a group of musicians from Birmingham?), produced a wall of sound that matched their frontman’s enthusiastic wailing.
The audience responded to Janeway with adoration. I saw people reach out to stroke his shoes and gather sequins that fell on the stage. Janeway grew up in a Pentecostal church community and in his performances he seems to inspire the same sort of fervor—but for music, not religion.
The band followed Elle King’s lead with another classic Beatles cover, a bombastic version of “I Want You (She’s so Heavy).” Along with playing songs from their debut album “Half the City,” they also paid tribute to iconic soul singer Otis Redding with a cover of “I’ve Been Loving You.”
I checked out the St. Paul and the Broken Bones website after the show. On their press page, Janeway says of his performance style that it really takes him “back to church. There’s not a lot of difference,” which makes me think I missed out on some serious sexy church fun as a devout Catholic youth.
All in all, a pretty wild and joyful start to my CityFolk experience.
