Austra Live at Warsaw Basen 22nd October 2013

Saw Canadian electronica band, Austra, at the Basen in Warsaw last night, which turned out to be another cracking gig.  Seen some really excellent gigs at this place recently, including Coco Rosie and Mum in particular.  Was really impressed with Austra frontwoman, Katie Stelmanis, not only her polyphonic-type voice, but also her impish-type movements and compelling presence on stage.

As expected, the band came on with 'What We Done', the opening (and for me, best) track on their second album, 'Olympia':

Well done to the good person who recorded this from an Austra show in London.  True to form, the barnstorming tune of the night was 'Lose It' (below from a KEXP performance), especially the beautiful change of tone and melody in the middle of this track:

Must say that it was, at first, a bit disappointing to see that the backing singers, the Lightman sisters, who also have great voices, weren't there on stage (either this or my eyes didn't catch them), but, overall, this didn't detract from a great performance.

Especially loved the crescendo-type finale:  two encores, the lights went on and things seemed to have ended, but the crowd as good as demanded the band back on stage for a final number.  Seldom see this full kind of encore routine these days, used to be a kind of norm years ago, so it was great to see it last night.

So which other tracks stood out for me last night?  Well, I first discovered Austra on the KEXP music programme via Youtube about 12-18 months ago while looking for a Low performance there, and became familiar with tracks like 'Spellwork' and 'The Beat and The Pulse' there, so these tunes had a special kind of resonance for me (again the tracks below are from KEXP performances):

Finally, I rounded a very good night off perfectly by going upstairs and taking a few shots of the Austra keyboard equipment while nicely finishing off a pint:

But which track was echoing in my mind at the end of the gig?  Well, I guess that would have to be 'Home' (below, again from the KEXP music programme):