Following a solid opening set from Toronto’s Housewife, London-based indie folksinger Bess Atwell took to the stage at the Sound Garage and humbly thanked the crowd for coming out to what she announced was her first headlining gig in Canada. Armed with only her guitar, a handful of prerecorded backing tracks, and her beautiful, ethereal voice, Atwell then proceeded to put on a fantastic show, running through a set full of tunes off her latest Light Sleeper alongside a few older tracks.
“You guys OK out there? It’s quite hot in here. There’s so many fans, my setlist is blowing away,” she said after playing “Release Myself,” though she was quick to add that she meant the kind of fans that help to circulate the air and not fans of hers who came to see the show. Though, for the record, there was a decent number of those kinds of fans as well.
In town for a show following her appearance this past weekend at Orillia’s Mariposa festival, Atwell noted that she normally plays with a full band but that when she tours overseas, it’s just too expensive to bring a band across the pond. Plus they don’t fit in her suitcase as easily. As such, she explained that for a couple of songs, she’d set aside the guitar and play an egg shaker alongside her “band in a box” (the aforementioned prerecorded backing tracks) because those songs work better that way than performed solo on a guitar. It could have veered into karaoke territory but instead made for a rather intimate and immersive performance.
The absolute highlight of her set for me though was her performance of “The Weeping,” with its chorus of “I’m a walking open wound” really standing out to my ears. It’s a brilliant lyric, one that sounds like it should be growled by some aggro metalcore band but works just as well and hits just as hard when delivered in a melancholy folk song.
As her set came to a close, Atwell announced that she had two songs left, adding that while she doesn’t want to sound like The Grinch, she doesn’t like encores, so after those two songs, that would be it. Good for her. Like, let’s just be adults and not pretend that we don’t know a band is coming back on stage when they supposedly “end” their set. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – encores are bunk. I applaud Bess and her strong no encores stance.
All in all, Bess Atwell put on an intimate, engaging, and beautifully stripped-back show. No encore required.
