Tim Fite + The Wailing Wall – Il Motore – Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
Jesse Rifkin aka The Wailing Wall came out from the back of the room with bells in his hands, singing out as he made his way to the stage. His voice was surprisingly powerful without a mic, veering closely to that of Bob Dylan’s. As he is currently on tour as a solo musician, he had to make up for all the other instruments heard on his excellent new full length LP, The Low Hanging Fruit, all on his own. He did so by looping each one over another, mixing bass lines with layers of vocals alongside guitar lines. Although this led to pretty interesting results, the countless layers of vocals often became too busy and overcrowded. I think if Rifkin were surrounded by the same cast of characters that accompanied him in the recording of his latest album (a cast featuring Tim Fite himself) this performance would have been a completely different experience. So after warming up the Montreal crowd Rifkin bid the crowd adieu and made way for the main act, Tim Fite.
Tim Fite wobbled into the crowd much like the way The Wailing Wall did, bellowing his booming voice, and right away everyone in the room knew this would not be your average show. The first thing Fite did was immediately push the chairs that the audience had been sitting on only seconds before to the back of the room, bringing everyone to their feet and closer to the stage. If anyone has ever seen Fite perform before you would know that crowd participation is a crucial part of the show, and it was no different on this night, as he had everyone sing along to an interesting version (with a more grown-up twist filled with sex, drugs and gambling) of ”Mary Had a Little Lamb”, a game of “Leroy Says” as well as the re-reading of a book he had found. It was the hilarious story of Rambo, a man who brings down trees and basically destroys everything in sight. Although the music of Fite’s show was mainly pre-recorded, his stage antics satisfied the audience to no end and left everyone feeling loose and happy and perhaps a little loopy. – Amelia Robitaille
Tim Fite
The Wailing Wall
Photography by Amelia Robitaille
