Basia Bulat, with the Weather Station, at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (08 March 2016)

The Weather Station

Opening up the show was fellow Canadians The Weather Station. Currently the live band was a trio, featuring singer/guitarist Tamara Lindeman and with help from drummer Matt (?) and guitarist Evan. All three band members would later resurface for Bulat’s backing band during her main set.



The Weather Station’s set featured a lot of new songs from her latest Loyalty album, including “Way It Is, Way It Could Be”, which did not feature any percussions. Lindeman, who sounded like Joni Mitchell, described the song as a “quieter song… as if it could get any quieter.” That’s actually a pretty good description of the band, they’re a quiet, acoustic, and gentle.



Their drummer-less mini set would see him return after “Came So Easy”.


Initially Lindeman had little to say, but as the set drew to its ending, she spoke more often. Describing how she love how beautiful America is (“well, most of it anyway”) as they’re driving through it, or how she’s often billed with other women. After commenting on the women thing, she jokingly said the Cedar show was billed because of “International Women’s Day” (which happened to be on the night of the show).

Basia Bulat

Like Basia Bulat’s previous appearance, she was quite happy and seemed to love to perform for us. She came on stage wearing a mini gold cape, which she said was a tribute to Prince and Bob (Dylan). She started her set with a very upbeat “Fool” song, which set the tone for the rest of her show. It was really a contrast to the Weather Station’s quiet set.



The first part of Bulat’s set is very harmonizing and fun, especially thanks to Tamara Lindeman’s backing vocals and multiple guitars. The second part of her set seemed to have Bulat mostly on keyboard. Eventually the band left and Bulat does her two-song solo set (“I Was a Daughter” and “It Can’t Be You”). The latter song featured the autoharp. The band would return and brought us back the energy, where we started earlier in her set. It made for a nice circle.

Setlist

As you can see, the entire band was still using Bulat’s Omaha setlist, so the show is largely the same night after night (with the exception of the solo and encore set). However, having said that, near the end of the set, she did play “Wires”, which was not written on the set.



For the encore, it was just Bulat for another two-song solo set. I was half expecting the rest of the band to rejoin Bulat, but that never happened. Prior to playing “I Was a Daughter”, someone asked her about Donald Trump, which from a Canadian’s perspective, she said, “God help us all.”



For the closing song, “It Can’t Be You”, Bulat quietly played us out with her ukulele.



Basia Bulat’s Good Advice is out now on Secret City Records.
Her US tour continues:

03/12/16 St. Louis, MO Off Broadway Nightclub 03/13/16 Kansas City, MO The Riot Room 03/14/16 Norman, OK Opolis 03/16/16 Austin, TX The Parish 03/21/16 Dallas, TX Three Links 03/22/16 Birmingham, AL Saturn 03/23/16 Decatur, GA Eddie’s Attic 03/24/16 Nashville, TN High Watt 03/25/16 Louisville, KY Zanzabar

03/26/16 Asheville, NC The Grey Eagle 03/28/16 Raleigh, NC King’s Barcade 03/29/16 Washington, DC Rock And Roll Hotel 03/30/16 Philadelphia, PA Boot & Saddle 04/01/16 New York, NY The Bowery Ballroom 04/02/16 Cambridge, MA The Sinclair 04/03/16 Portland, ME One Longfellow Square 04/04/16 South Burlington, VT Higher Ground 06/05/16 Field Trip Music & Arts Festival