live: owen pallett (final fantasy)

Confession: I was really, really late listening to the Canadian singer/songwriter/composer Owen Pallett (formerly known as Final Fantasy). In fact, despite Pallett having played on and/or arranged strings for some pretty fantastic and influential records, my introduction to him was this year’s Heartland. His first release under his own name rather than the Final Fantasy moniker, Heartland tells the story of a violent farmer named Lewis who’s speaking to his creator. It’s not that the story itself particularly spoke to me, but told in Pallett’s angelic tenor and backed by complex orchestral arrangements, horns, winds, timpani, and then some; combining classical influences with melodic pop hooks; I was blown away. I hadn’t been this excited about a record — or an artist in general — in a long time and, needless to say, Heartland is already a strong contender for my No. 1 of the year. Obviously, this also got me into his first LP, Has A Good Home and the follow-up, the ridiculously named He Poos Clouds, neither of which are as slickly produced but both have just as much character and as many hooks. Not to mention “This Is The Dream Of Win And Regine” and “The C.N. Tower Belongs To The Dead” from Has a Good Home are perfection. I’m still kicking myself for not listening sooner.

Anyway, last night I finally got to see Pallett live, at Webster Hall, and the set consisted mostly of my head and heart bursting open into a bunch of little pieces that might still be on the venue’s floor. (In this case, I think the lyric “This place is a narrative mess” from the song “Keep the Dog Quiet” is quite fitting, as no words can properly describe this particular one-hour state of bliss.) Pallett is mesmerizing live — his songs are a science; he loops layers of violin lines over one another, sometimes taps on the violin as percussion, and if he messes up on one loop (other than the first one — he did restart “This is the Dream of Win and Regine” because excited fans’ clapping was distracting), he might as well just start the whole thing over again. He opened with the lonely, hypnotizing waltz “E is for Estranged,” in which he sings, “This house is a hostel/ It’s peaceful, but it’s always emptying/ Boys all want to be someone.”

Along with the violin loops, Pallett also used electronic effects, yelled into his violin, and had a percussionist/guitarist with him for at least half of the songs, who provided backup vocals and was fun to watch as his body grooved with his own drumbeats. Pallett ended every song with a polite “thank you,” often followed by a minute of charming banter with the crowd, including a genuine thank-you for choosing his gig over the city’s other offerings that night (Hot Chip, White Hinterland, Javelin, to name a few). It was exciting trying to figure out the less obvious songs as each component was added, the toughest being the last of the show, which shouldn’t have been so difficult had it not been so incredibly out of context. I can’t say I ever thought I’d hear Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” played on violin, but on so many levels (including the venue’s star-studded backdrop), it was a pretty appropriate way to end the night.