tUnE-YarDs – Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto 12/5/11

19 May 2011, 16:00 | Written by Melody Lau

(Live)

There’s a glassed-in feel to tUnE-YarDs’ records. Even though Merrill Garbus’ voice can mercilessly grab a listener’s attention within seconds of a song, there’s still a sense of restraint, that there’s another dimension her music just can’t reach on record. But live, she shatters the glass and blows people away.

Onstage, Garbus is like a little kid fiddling with a bunch of instruments, trying to test the functions of each and piecing together a melody. With hot pink tulle sleeves popping against her black dress, like two tutus on her shoulders, Garbus switches back and forth between banging on drums and clutching a ukulele close to her chest, plucking away one intricate riff after another.

She only has a drum on each side, a ukulele and a loop pedal but that’s all she needs to build her multilayered overlays of upbeat folk earworms embedded with whimsically addictive African beats.

Throughout the night Garbus shows signs of giddiness whenever she successfully loops a rhythm or harmony. In a few instances, she’s especially pleased to capture the audience in the loop, grinning extra hard and even deciding to loop the crowd’s claps into a layer of the performance.

Accompanied by two saxophone players and a bassist – who also bang away on a makeshift percussion station made up of tin cans and plastic containers – the full band add yet another dimension to an already complex show. This proves beneficial to Garbus, bolstering many of the tracks from her latest record w h o k i l l to a fuller and more well-rounded live experience, comparable – and very often even better – than its recorded counterpart.

The thundering bass of ‘Gangsta’ fills the room to the brims and show-stopper ‘Bizness’ gets the crowd dancing all night, clapping and singing along to Garbus’ myriad of harmonies.

Between all the glassy-eyed stares into the audience and excited smirks between songs, Garbus treats the venue like her personal playground, where we all happily participate and play along. It’s no happy accident that the songs come together so well – underneath Garbus’ smirk is a genius at work.