REVIEW:Whelan's, Dublin
For a long time there was a consensus that Owen Pallett, the artist formerly known as Final Fantasy, was one of those musicians whose live shows were significantly more satisfying than his albums – and certainly his previous gigs in Ireland were some of the most memorable of the past few years.
So there is a certain inevitability that with the release of probably his strongest, most consistently engaging album, Heartland,Pallett finally delivers a performance in Ireland that isn't an unqualified triumph.
A classically trained violinist and the orchestral arranger for Arcade Fire's landmark debut, Funeral,Pallett has released Heartlandunder his own name to avoid any future confusion with the Final Fantasy series of games, but his trademark orchestral sound is still present and correct.
After fine support from David Celia, another Toronto musician of a more orthodox singer-songwriter persuasion, Pallett took the stage wielding his bow and violin with charming intent. Part of the pleasure of a Pallett performance is the overture before each song, as he skilfully layers the various elements, constructing the loops and then controlling them with pedals at his feet – he at one point described the process as like an amuse bouche between songs.
Accompanied on guitar by Thomas Gill, who offered an interlude with one of his own compositions, Pallett ran through most of the material from Heartland, and many of the highlights from earlier albums Has a Good Homeand He Poos Clouds, but he seemed slightly jaded, and never managed to transfix the audience as he has on previous occasions, though this might have been down to it being the second of two dates.
Yet Pallett composes songs of such lavish beauty, the sounds from his violin swooping and soaring, his bow deftly dancing across the strings with remarkable control, his loops building one on top of the other, that even a relatively flat performance such as this one can’t completely fail to beguile. With a talent as abundant as Pallett’s, the only certainty is that there will be more beautiful shows to look forward to.
