By now, you know the way musical rules work. The more volume behind a singer or rapper, the more they’re emboldened to look the crowd in the eyes. Countless punk singers and rappers have squatted down, gotten in people’s faces, jumped into the crowd and obliterated the fourth wall. Those trading in quieter music — like jazz, folk, or classical — tend to hew firmly to their place, acknowledging the audience from time to time, often minimally and nearly always between songs. These are our expectations as an audience. We know what we’re getting.
Seeing the Montreal duo Majical Cloudz live is, then, an inherently off-putting experience. With only Matthew Otto’s whisper-thin electronic loops supporting his warm crooning baritone, singer Devon Welsh manages to be more antagonistic, more piercing and more brutally intimate than any punk singer I’ve seen. Even during instrumental passages — especially during instrumental passages — he stands alone, sometimes whipping the microphone downward in rhythm, just… staring at you. Remember Marina Abramović’s The Artist is Present? It’s like that.
When I first saw Majical Cloudz, I laughed. The next time, though, I could barely move. And in talking with Welsh afterward, I learned that he’s very aware of his stage presence and what it does to people. Coupled with his lyrics, which skip the niceties and jump straight to meaning-of-life discourses on love and death, he leaves himself vulnerable onstage, night after night — even during the band’s 2014 string of shows opening for Lorde in huge halls.
As far as recordings go, 2013’s Impersonator is a solid place to start. But there’s nothing like seeing a live performance. Majical Cloudz play Tuesday, Jan. 26, at the Chapel. Details here.
