EMILY HAINES & THE SOFT SKELETON @ Le National

By Lisa Sookraj - Unsystem-Addict - 09/18/2006

There was no opening band for Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton. Doors were at 8, I arrived at 9 and the show didn't start until 9:40. I didn't enjoy the sitting there by myself but they were playing a mix of David Bowie and Eliott Smith beforehand, which I can't complain about.

One thing I can complain about is that there were chairs set up in Le National for the show, which made it feel more like being at a school play than at a jazz concert -- what the vibe was leaning towards and could have easily been had it been an all-standing show. At Le National, you can see really well from anywhere in the room -- even if you’re short -- when you’re standing. I think the seats caused everyone stress in truth, as everyone wanted their seats together and it was mostly couples and groups of 3-7 girls.

When the show started, there was a guy behind me who rather flamboyantly yelled out "Oh my gawd! She is SO thin!" and then laughed along with his entourage of five girls. Ms. Haines was good-looking as she is, but she *does* look quite thin, thinner than when I saw her play with Metric last summer, that’s for certain. I found she tends to come across as rather indifferent in her way of thanking people for coming out and listening to her music etc. I also found it odd she referred to her music as something radically unacceptable or different, when really there's lots of music less mainstream or inoffensive than her solo work. She also seemed unaware that Metric is pretty darn widely accepted. Haines said that people drinking (Vodka and 7s was her example) wouldn't likely get what she was doing. Does she really think people who drink don’t enjoy all different types of music? How about the people that need a drink to handle being alone at her show amidst a crowd consisting mainly of shallow people?

Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton played "Our Hell" first off their recently released album Knives Don’t Have Your Back. They played an hour’s worth of the 12 track album with no encore, including "Doctor Blind", "Crowd Surf Off a Cliff" and the song about sexual suicide, "The Lottery". The band had a screen above the stage where some old black and white films were being projected. The screen was no doubt thought to be necessary to liven things up. I was into this and would be interested to know what films they grabbed the bits from -- they were edited and looped and though it wasn’t complex, it was neat they had someone VJ-ing. Sometimes the images went well with the songs in terms of emotion on peoples' faces -- more in terms of storyline -- but the projections were no doubt intended to come across as skilled, abstract and arty.

Before each song, its title would appear on the screen. This was funny as I guess Haines would like people to really know the songs by name eventually -- the album just came out and a lot of people haven't heard it yet -- but it seemed especially necessary to have the names on screen to distinguish them from each other as they all sound really similar. Often, they were only distinguishable by the album title coming up in the lyrics. I personally find some of Haines’ lyrics to be annoying, like "Crowd Surf Off a Cliff" and how that line in particular is sung. But at other times, listening to her made me think of the free range writers have within the realm of lyrics. I should note though that when messing up on the planned order, she even commented herself "they’re all on the same album anyway" with an air of they-all-sound-pretty-much-the-same.

I'm not complaining about this similarity in sound of the live show though as it was still a much more enjoyable experience to me than listening to the album at home -- which I rarely find myself feeling the desire to. There is indeed something nice about a girl with a good singing voice with her piano, and she had a great bass player/guitarist named Paul Dylan. In truth, she sounds better and emits a bit more emotiveness live than recorded. In addition, there is of course something of Metric’s melodies in these softer songs, and it’s a vast improvement from the first Emily Haines album, no doubt as a result of her experiences with Metric. One might wonder if Metric was a means by which for her to achieve a name for herself and get back to what she’s perhaps always wanted to do best?

I did go into this show somewhat biased as poppy as Metric may be, I had way more fun at their show. I shouldn’t hold this against Haines and her Soft Skeleton, as I’m just personally not in the mood for the slower sorts of sound for the most part, as of late.

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