Last Night's Gig: Patrick Watson and the Wooden Arms at Rote Fabrik

The second great Canadian band to come through town in a little more than a week. I must say that although I know of them, I had not heard much of Patrick Watson (other than the fact the he and his band won the Polaris Prize in 2007) so I didn't really go in expecting anything, but was excited just to hear another Canadian act. Unfortunately as I got on the tram I realized that I had forgotten my Canadian flag so I didn't end up with it being signed, but to me, the music is the most important part and I was worried that the Swiss puncuality would make me late.

The opener (Anna Aaron) was pretty good (I do have a soft spot for piano-playing singer/song-writers, so this might not be a surprise) and she had a very solid voice.

Before Patrick Watson and the Wooden Arms hit the stage, we were checking out the stage set-up and it was pretty complicated with lots of different instruments and a riser set-up with four chairs (which turned out to be correctly adjudicated for a string section) and a very nice percussion setup. There was also an olde movie projector pointed at the side wall and just running blank film. Along with the music playing between sets it gave me a very cinematic vibe and the set didn't discredit that assumption. The songs were sparse, yet intricate in all of their parts, and most had a nice full theatrical feel with strings, Patrick playing the piano and excellent guitar parts. Adding to that was the exceptional showmanship and amazing lights. It was like the U2 of indie-rock bands. At first it seemed a bit of a gimmick, but after 3 songs you realize that that is the style and you really get into it.

The clincher to a great concert was the amazing encore, where Patrick, his guitarist came out into the middle of the crowd to do an acoustic song while the crowd clapped along and the percussionist played a saw and stamped out the beat on the stage. Amazing. Then they closed out with a song that they wrote the day before! Very cool. A great show and I'll definitely see them again if I get a chance.

The cover of the new Patrick Watson and the Wooden Arms album