It's as much what it is as it is what it's not.

This evening Jason and I went to see Jason Collett's Basement Revue. This event is held annually each Tuesday in December at the Dakota Tavern, which is a tiny little basement bar, and definitely one of my favourite places. We went to two revues last year, and thankfully this year we were able to make it to one.

Jason Collett is a Toronto musician and part of the Broken Social Scene collective. During the Basement Revue, he'll open with a few songs, and then there are several sets by other musicians, and usually a bit of poetry too. You're virtually guaranteed to see some pretty cool Toronto musicians play and jam with each other. Last year we saw several other members of Broken Social Scene, Ron Sexsmith, Torquil Campbell from Stars, Jimmy Shaw from Metric, and many more play at our two shows.

The Basement Revue is fun because you never know what to expect. When we got there, we playing the crowd spotting game to see which musicians were around. Right away we saw Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, both of BSS. Then we spotted Feist! Of course my brain reminded me that she could just be there to see her friends play, and not actually be there herself. I was just going enjoy being in the same audience as her.

The first half of the show was fun, with performances by Jason Collett, Brendan Canning, legendary Canadian songwriter Andy Kim, and Kevin Drew. After the break, a really great duo called Aurora (?) played a few songs, and then I saw Feist say to Jason Collet "Am I next?" Could it be true??

Well, she wasn't next. There was some poetry, but after that, Ms. Leslie Feist took the stage. How awesome was it for me to see one of my favourite musicians, who is internationally renowned, play a tiny little basement bar? Pretty fucking awesome.

She started by playing three songs by herself with just a guitar. The songs were "The Bad in Each Other", "Graveyard", and "Anti-Pioneer". She commented that she felt a little bit nervous, because she hadn't played by herself in over six years. Awww, I love her.

Then, she brought out a shiny tambourine, and a few other musicians, including Kevin Drew, to play a percussive instruments only version of "The Circle Married the Line". It was great.

Her last song was a rather rock-n-roll version of "Undiscovered First". (All of the songs she played were from her 2011 album "Metals".) When she finished, she said "that was louder than I intended, but I thoroughly enjoyed it." It was excellent. All of the songs were. *swoon*

So that was a pretty amazing Basement Revue, and I don't know if it could ever be topped. Is there anyone else I'd take over Feist as a performer in a tiny little basement bar? I don't think so.

Thank you universe. Oh, and thank you Toronto for just being an awesome city with lots of fun stuff to do, and a really great music scene that has produced some great people.

Oh and tomorrow night = Sloan. Woot!