Julie Feeney Live at the National Concert Hall - May 29th, 2010

When I was telling people that I had tickets to see Julie Feeney at the National Concert Hall, I was always asked: What kind of music does she play? Answering the question is not straightforward. Julie's style can best be described as "classical pop".

For last Saturday's concert, Julie was accompanied on stage by the Pages Orchestra, a 20+ piece orchestra with piano, strings (violins violas, cellos and a double bass!), winds, harp and percussions. Julie played the piano, recorder, accordion and her trusted harmonium.

She played a selection of songs from '13 Songs' and 'Pages' in full. As always, the arrangements are very different from the album versions and really emphasize her beautiful melodies and harmonies. She also added a couple of covers, including a great version of Halleluja, and excerpts from Philip Glass' Songs from Liquid Days.

I was lucky enough to get 2nd row tickets despite the fact that I only bought them 5 days before the concert and it was fully sold out by Saturday. And the acoustics of the National Concert Hall really made for a fantastic show.

Aching sounded beautiful with the full orchestra, as opposed to last year in Crawdaddy when she sang it with the harmonium only. One More Tune is a favourite of mine live, she gets the crowd really engaged clapping and singing. Myth went down very well as Julie walked around the theatre while interacting with the crowd. And of course the encore of Love is a Tricky thing, followed by Impossibly Beautiful finished what was a fantastic night and a very different concert.

Julie's songs, interwoven harmonies and poetic lyrics are truly beautiful. I hope that she releases a live album to enjoy the experience over and over again.

Setlist:

• Autopilot
• Monster
• Alien
• Grace
• Instrumental Interlude 1,000,001 (instrumental version)
• Valentine's Song
• Stay
• Nothing to Declare
• Knock Knock
• Wind Out Of My Sails
• Myth
• Excerpts from Songs from Liquid Days
• Fictitious Richard
• Mr. Roving Eye Guy
• Aching
• You Broke The Magic
• Life's Nudge
• Hallelujah
• One More Tune
  
  
• Love Is A Tricky Thing
• Impossibly Beautiful

Update, June 5th, 2010 - I received a message from Julie yesterday where she kindly told me that the first instrumental was a special arrangement of 1,000,001 that she prepared for the show, so I have changed the setlist accordingly!