Amanda Marshall makes a triumphant homecoming to Massey Hall
Amanda Marshall
June 16 at Massey Hall, Toronto
She blew the roof of Massey Hall off the rafters.
Wearing a “Toronto For Life” T-shirt and shimmering silver pants, Amanda Marshall made her much-anticipated return to her hometown she’d spent 20 years building — and it didn’t disappoint.
Despite live performances that were few and far between in the decades when her career faded off the planet, Marshall and her seven-piece band delivered a show that other performers might want to observe and study because, quite frankly, she was perfect.
Marshall played to a near-packed audience who thunderously applauded her homecoming and Marshall was a hive of activity that began with the first note of “Let It Rain” and didn’t stop until the last note of the final encore of “Sunday Morning After.” Nearly two hours later: She paced or walked relentlessly from stage right to stage left, singing incessantly and addressing all three levels of Massey Hall seating, constantly projecting a joyful, charismatic presence as she danced to virtually every note of her 16-song set.
Marshall is one of those rare entertainers who is defined and electrified by the music that runs through her veins – and one of her rare gifts is being able to turn that into a form of expression that naturally energizes audiences. So even when she wasn’t singing, she would pump her fist or kick her leg to accentuate certain beats or breaks and it was infectious to watch.
And then, of course, there’s that voice.
That voice!
If anything about Amanda Marshall’s vocal abilities has changed over the years, it’s that while her tone has gotten a little deeper and more mature, her soulful intensity can still crush your resistance at 50 paces: she can go to whimpers and offers impressive blues-and-gospel-saturated power, then holds out for enviable time to the point where jaws drop.
Perhaps the most powerful demonstration of her remarkable talent was the second time she rallied the audience: “If I Didn’t Have You” was a tour de force statement of love and need that swelled Marshall’s prominent lung capacity as the piece into an emotional crescendo.
The lengthy standing ovation surprised even Marshall.
“We’ve got a lot of show from Toronto,” she stammered, entering six issues.
Another unexpected highlight, preceded by a story about her first performance at Massey Hall at age 17 as an opening act for the Jeff Healey Band, was her a cappella version of John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery,” which she confessed to be a of her parents’ favorite songs. tunes. The meter seemed a bit rushed, but she beat it out of the ballpark.
Although she recently released her fourth album ‘Heavy Lifting’, the majority of the evening’s material came from her self-titled debut… ‘Sitting On Top Of The World’ and the party was in full swing as she played the title track from her third album ‘Everybody’s Got A Story’ merged with ‘Birmingham’.
Another evolving aspect of Marshall’s material is her sense of humour; something that seemed to flourish on her latest album with “Sunday Morning After” (and its crazy “Oh My God!” catchphrase about a response to drunken shenanigans) and continues on “Heavy Lifting” with the song “I’m Not Drunk .” These songs are especially effective live fodder because the singer plays them off with the right facial expressions and gestures that seem like she’s in direct conversation.This little bit of theatricality also adds to the overall impact of her confident performance.
Marshall also incorporated respectful credits to some of the giants who have passed recently: She added a chorus of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown” to “Last Exit To Eden” as a tribute to the beloved songwriting legend, and threw in a few bars of “What’s Love Got To Do With It’ to ‘(Trust Me) This Is Love’ in honor of the fallen Tina Turner.
She managed to be everything to all people – unpretentious friend, sophisticated storyteller, sincere philosopher, romantic reveler – without falling into a cheesy, maudlin or insincere sentiment.
Marshall was classy, fun and provided an authentically uplifting experience not to be missed if you get a chance to see her… although it remains to be seen if the venue officials will metaphorically fix the roof in time for the second show of Saturday.
