• Natalie Merchant Mesmerizes Crowd In Stoic Toronto Venue •

Natalie Merchant Live - Convocation Hall, Toronto

One can't help but feel reverance towards higher education when entering Convocation Hall on the campus of the University of Toronto. The staid surroundings, row upon row of antique theatre seats on three levels, present a stark contrast to the jet black stage, a plethora of computerized lights and the banks of loudspeakers, cabling, amps and drums which the seats encompass. As the lights went down and the musicians came on stage one by one, a palpable electricity flowed through the room and Natalie Merchant and her band fed off this electricity for the rest of the night.

On four wooden stools across the front of stage, Merchant and three bandmates started the set with a few mellow songs, rendered on acoustic guitar, bass, some sort of banjo-guitar hybrid and of course carried by Merchant's powerful voice. But the musicians could not stand the confines of the stools for long and one by one they shifted to further corners of the stage, filling the voids like atoms looking for a void and finding their niches for the rest of the night.

As the set continued, Merchant warmed up to the crowd, despite repeated complaints about the air conditioning which was blasting straight at her throughout the set and causing her flowing clothing to billow in a cinematic yet chilly display. (At the end of the night before her last song she explained that she had determined that the only person who could turn down the air conditioning had gone home at noon that day.)

Through a set that gradually built in volume yet maintained a constant intensity, Merchant and band plowed through songs that at times overwhelmed the room with their sheer volume as she spun and cavorted barefoot on stage in an almost child-like caricature of herself. Musically the arrangements were fairly straightforward with two electric guitars, piano or keyboard, and drums through most of the set. At times the dynamic of the songs seemed lost, especially by the drummer who tended to pound every song out, Bon Jovi arena-rock style, even when it didn't seem appropriate.

After what seemed a far-too-short 65 minutes, the band left the stage for the seldom enjoyable break before the first contrived "encore"... is it too much to ask in the year 2002 that bands just say "we're going to take a 10 minute break" and then come back out and play some more? Making the audience, most of whom paid $50 a seat, beg for more seems almost disrespectful. But I digress.

After two encores Merchant took a moment to talk with the crowd, accepting gifts including a box of Little Debbie cupcakes (which she fed back to the crowd), and a replica human foot, responding that apparently she has been having trouble drawing the human foot and that this gift might help. She then put the foot on top of the grand piano and played the last song unaccompanied by the band, before bidding the crowd adieu.

Merchant took time before the end of the night to mention that she will be parting ways with some of her musicians and her thanks seemed genuine. This being her last headlining show before starting a stint opening for Chris Isaak, Merchant and band were clearly in top form and the Toronto crowd left satisfied and possibly even somewhat stunned by the intensity of the evening and the moving performance by this fast-approaching-legendary artist.

•Steve Donnelly Email WWW

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Artist: Natalie Merchant

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