. : : October 16th, 2011 : : .
Another Sunday, another Rebekah Higgs show at the Drake Underground.
Coming straight from work, I didn’t have time to grab a bite to eat. Arriving about an hour early, I snatched a seat at the Drake Lounge. I guess hotels are known to often house pretty good restaurants, but The Drake might take the prize. With my first bite into the renowned Drake Burger, I knew it was going to be a good night.
After polishing off the meal and finding my way down to the Underground, I started to prepare for taping duties when Rebekah herself slid into the seat beside me. “Hey, you’re the Twitter guy, right?” Busted! Her radiance and personality are no trick of the stage — this lady is the real deal — and as luck would have it, she’s a-OK with me taping and sharing her sets online (although, like most musicians I’ve talked to about it, she doesn’t want to listen to them herself).
I’m sure it helps that I can’t stop publicly gushing about how wonderful her live set and her recently released sophomore album, Odd Fellowship are. In fact, I like it so much, I’ve sort of already bought it a few times — the first at the record release show at the Rivoli, a copy of LP at the second of the residency shows, and another the week after this one as part of the door fees to replace the original copy I gave to a friend. So, yeah. It’s pretty gosh darn damn good, and I told her so.
We chatted about live taping, her album, the shows, and a bit more before she took leave of me, just in time for me to start capturing the opening set by Language Arts. One of the things that DID come up in the conversation, though, was that this evening would be another trio show. Although there has been very little variation in the setlist, I can honestly say each show has been just a little bit different.
The set on this evening was more like the first of the residency shows, which was held upstairs in the lounge. But this time, with a proper crowd in a proper room, the set came across as a bit more performative, tighter and professional. Admittedly, a handful of the songs seemed a bit hollow without the full band treatment, but the stripped down arrangements afforded a bit of extra intimacy in an already intimate venue.
Picking favourites tracks is getting increasingly difficult — even songs I was unfamiliar with or indifferent to at the beginning of the residency have grown on me considerably. The order of the songs, however, has never been more brilliantly executed. The songs started off slowly and built to the crashing crescendo of Drunk Love and familiar set closer and album outtake, 96′.
But it seems redundant to continue on with how great this girl is live and how catchy these songs are. If I haven’t converted with yet, I probably won’t with this post, either. To those interested, though, you will find another lovely set presented with fantastic fidelity. For everyone else? Well, only two more shows until the residency concludes.
01. Miserably Together
02. Give You What You Want
03. [banter]
04. Little Voice
05. Youth and Beauty
06. Gosh Darn Damn
07. He’s So Fine [the Chiffons]
08. Parables
09. Drunk Love
10. [banter]
11. 96′
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Huge thanks to Rebekah Higgs and crew, and the beautiful the Drake Hotel and its amazing staff.
