Acrpost: A Project of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres

Event Description

resh off a heartfelt, dynamic performance at the sold out Vogue Theatre, Perryscope Concerts and Vogue Productions are happy to welcome Patrick Watson back to Vancouver. This fall the Juno nominated Patrick Watson will enchant audiences at The Centre for Performing Arts on Thursday November 15.

Patrick Watson is a Montreal-based art-rock quartet that carries the name of its chief songwriter and frontman. They exploded onto the Canadian and international scene alike at the end of 2006 following the release of Close to Paradise on Montreal’s Secret City Records. This year Patrick Watson released their third album Adventures in Your Own Backyard and in keeping with his outstanding history with the Polaris Prize, winner in 2007 with Close To Paradise, short-listed 2009 with Wooden Arms, the band was recently announced as long-listed for their latest efforts.

The versatility of Patrick Watson’s music can be traced through the man himself, who began his musical career at age seven singing in local churches on the West Island of Montreal. He grew up studying classical and jazz piano performance, arrangement, and composition, and to this day references Debussy and Satie as influences more readily than Jeff Buckley. Watson met guitarist Simon Angell in their hometown of Hudson, Quebec around this time, and the two have collaborated ever since—Angell’s soundscapes and noise-influences having developed into the perfect complement to Watson’s colourful melodic compositions and gut-wrenching falsetto.

Watson’s music has been visually inspired and cinematic from the start. In 2001 he released Waterproof9—an experimental suite meant to accompany the underwater photography of long-time visual collaborator, Brigitte Henry (who also worked on the stunning art direction of Close to Paradise). Since then Watson performances have rarely been without wild projections and optical illusions, often incorporating large props (like fitting a band in a giant bubble) and film of all kinds.

While studying music at Vanier College in the late-nineties, Patrick had met Ukrainianborn Mishka Stein, and Swiss/British Columbia ex-pat Robbie Kuster, who were increasingly invited to fill out his rhythm section when performing live shows (with Angell having long-since become a permanent fixture). Though still Watson’s project, an informal residency at the legendary Café Sarajevo and an eerie live chemistry between the four musicians quickly led to more group writing and a growing word-of-mouth fanbase.