Misstress Barbara Warmly Received By MTL Crowd

      On a cold February night where Montreal found warmth in the Habs’ come-from-behind win over the Boston Bruins, Misstress Barbara took to the stage of Club Soda and delivered a stellar performance following local act Winter Gloves.  Hailing from similar backgrounds, Misstress Barbara and Winter Gloves both originated as individual projects using minimal equipment; now both have joined the often unfulfilling ranks of live bands. Mind you, Sicilian-born Misstress Barbara or Barbara Bonfiglio’s 15 years experience as an international club DJ hasn’t hampered the development of her new project, ‘Girls on a Ducati’ from reaching new levels.
  Having been to Misstress Barbara’s show back in April where she opened the much smaller venue Zoobizarre for local underground high-fliers Akido, I was very curious to see if all the radio coverage she has received had taken her new image to that next level. Constantly revisited and over-exposed songs such as  ‘I’m Running’ (featuring Sam Roberts) and the Bjorkesqe  “J’etais une Fleur’ have brought the Sicilian huge crowds and success.
      The high-energy trio Winter Gloves warmed the audience up with their mustaches, mod looks and neo-Radiohead meets-the-Postal Service sound. Hunched over his keyboard, , assisted by gimmicks such as the use of his feet instead of his hands to mash the keys lead signer Charles F brought the Club Soda crowd to a dancing frenzy.  They did what any good opening act should do, got in, dazzled, and got out before the unruly crowd starts losing their patience for the headliner.
      Misstress Barbara had no problem following their act; she even started without her back up Girls on a Ducati who are actually two guys on instruments. She started it all off with an incredible performance of I’m No Human, the title track off her newly released debut that she extended for a couple minutes in order to flaunt her Djing abilities. Her echo effects, distortion and other forms of vocal-manipulation held the crowd in awe for most of the night.  She played the majority of her new album, much of which features guest artists who obviously can’t always attend her shows. This has left her making excuses for Sam Roberts’ constant absence: “last time he was hit by a train, the fist time he broke his leg and this time… Sam’s been kidnapped this time” she mused. The fans were upset to lose Sam but appreciated her sense of humor.

Covers, Covers, Covers…
Her latest album includes a cover of Leonard Cohen’s famed tune ‘Dance Me To The End Of Love’ which has been brilliantly re-worked and is pretty unrecognizable from the original. In addition to this cove,r she spiced up her set with some other surprising covers:  a fun and faster version of Come Together by the Beatles, a chant-along version of Tears for Fears’ shout shout let it all out, and, most surprising of all, the Talkshow Host, Radioheads’ hit from the modern Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack (think Claire Danes and Di Caprio). This last cover was played in the encores along with some non-album Misstress Barbara tracks, tracks from her DJ days for the real fans that had stayed until the end.

Expect More Misstress Barbara in the days to come.