There were truly no “Uh Oh’s” on Patrick Watson’s “Uh Oh” tour at The Basement East. Like many listeners, I discovered Patrick Watson from the song “Je te lasserai des mots” during the pandemic and began listening more to his gut-wrenching music. Seeing my first billion-stream song live felt long overdue. The night saw a full house and an ethereal performance from Patrick Watson and his band.
Opener La Force got the show going with some lighthearted banter, jokingly saying that she is either “Patrick Watson or Edward Scissorhands. Or both!”
The crowd showed lots of enthusiasm. La Force began her first two songs by strumming the guitar gently, noting that they were unreleased.
One notable song was “Ketamine Joe,” a deeply personal song about her brother’s recovery journey from depression. Through unconventional treatments offered by a clinic and legalized by the Canadian government, her brother has recovered, and the crowd cheered upon hearing that he is getting married this summer.
La Force played two other songs, including a Mexican-inspired track, which was yet another unreleased piece. She concluded her set with “Protection,” which she thought was fitting in a time of conflict.
As La Force left the stage, the crowd’s nonstop chitchat signaled anticipation. With drinks in hand, or marked X’s on the back, the crowd stayed excited, talking about what songs might be on the setlist. Then, the lights dimmed.
The crowd was silently suspended as Patrick Watson stepped onto the stage and sat down on the piano stool. He traced his fingers on the keys and gradually began pressing down on the notes, with each key getting louder and louder. Slowly, his soft vocals began to spread throughout the room as he gave voice to “Gordon in the Willows.” Under the midnight blue stage lights, Watson could be seen adjusting his modular synth board as he experimented with creating ethereal vocal effects.
The buildup reached its peak, and blue laser lights created a cool effect throughout the venue.
Following some banter with the crowd, La Force returned, and Watson revealed the collaborative nature of his latest album. Thinking back about the joke La Force made, it all made sense. Watson and La Force played two songs from his most recent album, “Uh Oh,” which was built around collaborations with different guest vocalists.
“The Wandering” is a bossa nova-inflected duet originally featuring Portuguese artist MARO, while “House on Fire” is an emotionally charged duet capturing the tension of two sides fighting for a relationship not meant to be. The original feature was from Martha Wainwright.
After these two pieces, Watson sat down at the piano and played “Ode to Viviane,” a purely instrumental piano piece from his 2022 album “Better in the Shade,” built on delicate, flowing lines of melancholy.
Watson’s next song was the crowd-pleaser. Just from the first three chords, I knew what was coming. “To Build a Home” was originally recorded with The Cinematic Orchestra and is one of Watson’s most recognizable works. As Watson’s falsetto seared through the song’s emotional, dramatic crescendo, the audience sang along to every word.
The next two songs were “Silencio,” a hushed, toned-down tune, and “Places You Will Go,” which drew inspiration from Dr. Seuss as a personal message to inspire his children to embrace the unknown.
To switch things up, Watson got the crowd to sing along to “Man Like You,” where people sang the lilting “ah ah ah’s.” In “Peter and the Wolf,” the set took a more experimental turn, with unique metallic percussion instruments used to tell a story that sounded like a modern fairy tale.
Before playing his most iconic song, Watson shared the meaning behind “Je te laisserai des mots,” which translates to “I will leave you some words.” The song was Watson’s first written in French, and he talked about how he embraced the imperfect pronunciation rather than correcting it. During the pandemic, the song went viral and became the first French-language song to surpass one billion streams on Spotify.
Watson played his title track, “Uh Oh” from his new album, a concept born after the scare of never being able to sing again after rupturing a blood vessel in his throat. The night closed with “Here Comes the River,” a powerful song about needing to feel grief to overcome anger, where Watson held nothing back in building up the crescendo. The room held its breath before erupting into applause, marking it a night everyone would remember.
