MICHAEL FEUERSTACK with PAPER BEAT SCISSORS at the Piston, Tuesday, September 24. Rating: NNNN
Perhaps it was the close proximity to Comedy Bar – or more likely Michael Feuerstack’s unusual sense of humour – but this intimate, folky show turned out to be a surprisingly entertaining one as well, with the Montreal-based songwriter (who dropped his longstanding Snailhouse band name earlier this year) poking fun at the “hippie lyrics” in some of his new songs, and quipping back and forth with tourmate Tim Crabtree aka Paper Beat Scissors.
Feuerstack and Crabtree co-produced the debut Paper Beat Scissors record and the two have a great musical rapport: Feuerstack guested on lap steel and backup vocals during Crabtree’s opening set, and Crabtree returned the favour on clarinet, electric guitar and vocals during Feuerstack’s.
Finger-picking gently on a bright-red Rickenbacker, Crabtree (who’s from the UK but based in Halifax) used two vocal mics – one much cleaner than the other – to vary sound and intensity. PBS songs often begin mellow and incantatory before jumping up five notches, and Crabtree pulled this off without sounding contrived. He also did a wildly different, interesting cover of Elliott Smith’s Waltz #1.
For his part, Feuerstack demonstrated that whatever moniker he goes by, he’s a great, original songwriter and a captivating guitarist. Cases in point: the odd surprise guitar solo, and lyrics that seemed to bask in sadness while never taking themselves too seriously.
He got Jenny Berkel up to sing on Leave Me Alone, but the biggest surprise came during the encore: Feuerstack was struggling to remember some of the words for the Snailhouse song Tone Deaf Birds, so an audience member got onstage and performed an impromptu duet with him.
