MOSES SUMNEY at Mod Club, Thursday, October 5. Rating: NNNN
Moses Sumney’s debut album is called Aromanticism, and so press articles and reviews have often dwelled on themes of solitude and loneliness and his aversion to pop’s perennial reliance on love songs.
But as evidenced at the Los Angeles singer/songwriter’s Toronto headlining debut, the way he treats his voice renders specific themes or lyrics an afterthought.
The three-pronged microphone set-up at centre stage indicated that vocals would be the main attraction. Over an hour-long set, he looped and layered his voice, changed keys in quick jazzy cascades, held it in piercing falsettos and dialed it down into grizzled bass notes. He was precise and controlled but also wild and showy, and the audience ate it up.
Toward the end, he confessed that he was raspier than usual from being on the road for so long. “I sound like Macy Gray,” he said, self-mockingly. But… occasionally he did.
Sumney is one of those singers who sounds instantly familiar but also hard to place. You can hear Nina Simone, Thom Yorke, Sylvester and a host of other influences that he has seemingly absorbed into something ineffable and personal.
He took the stage in shadow, with blue lights silhouetting a wide-brimmed hat. A guitarist sat on one side of him and a bass player/saxophonist on the other. The opening song was Aromanticism album closer Self-Help Tape. As he looped dissonant vocal riffs and runs in harmony with swirling guitar chords and frenetic horn bursts, it was clear his emphasis would be mostly on feeling and texture.
He played a gentle guitar riff on Don’t Bother Calling, a straightforward pop song that went on many atmospheric digressions and included a show-stopping high note that coalesced with the crescendoing saxophone. The lyrics blurred and melded together to emotional effect. His simple but dramatic staging was mirrored in the arrangements, which made the most of minimalist elements.
Sumney’s Toronto friends warned him about the Screwface Capital, telling him the Toronto crowd “is not gonna show you love, but they’re there.” He continually made self-deprecating comments about the crowd being bored or depressed despite the rapturous response he received after (and during) many of the songs.
His banter was consistently hilarious. When instructing the audience on a call-and-response bit during the encore, he advised those who couldn’t harmonize to “stay in your lane.”
He pumped up the thumping beat on his recent single, Lonely World, and took the song into full-on music-festival rave-up territory. It was epic and emo, suggesting an inclination for bigger stages.
He also did a couple of covers. Before playing a straightforward take on Neil Young’s classic Harvest Moon, he explained that he was road-testing it for a wedding he’s due to sing at this weekend. It was beautiful, but more interesting was a version of Björk deep cut Come To Me that he sang with a wild romanticism – and in what sounded like the original key.
Suddenly it all made sense: like the Icelandic innovator, Sumney deftly mediates between nerdy classical references and punk-ish emotionalism. And therein was the tension and the beauty of the show.
kevinr@nowtoronto.com | @kevinritchie
