by Bradi Breckman<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some music is best listened to while lying in the grass on a warm summer night. Local artist FONTINE\u2019s indie-folk tracks certainly fit into this category, making it obvious why she was picked to perform in Assiniboine Park’s Summer Entertainment Series. This concert series featured local artists at the outdoor Lyric Theatre every Thursday and Sunday in July and August. FONTINE performed on August 25th, closing out the Sunday evening shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
FONTINE is a queer, Indigenous artist with prairie roots that heavily influence her lyrics and sound. She has performed shows with popular indie artists such as Boy Golden and The Paper Kites, and she played at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 2023. Her debut album, Yarrow Lover,<\/em> was also released in 2023, and it features six original songs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FONTINE dubbed the first of her two sets an \u201cexperimental\u201d one, playing mostly unreleased songs, as well as songs she was new to performing. She was backed by a guitarist and a drummer. FONTINE opened with \u201cHome Right Here,\u201d followed by \u201cShelter,\u201d tracks that leaned into the relaxed, indie aspect of her music. The lyrics were full of natural and celestial imagery, and the words complimented the easy-going instrumentals. Songs like \u201cCow Poke\u201d and \u201cNothing\u201d walked the lines of genre, dipping into folk, pop, indie rock and country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Near the end of the first set, FONTINE\u2019s backup musicians left the stage, and she performed \u201cNature Song for the Time Being\u201d and \u201cThis Mess\u201d (two songs off of her EP) solo. This was an excellent performance decision, as these tracks are both intimate and vulnerable, and performing them alone made the crowd connect more with FONTINE herself. From themes of societal expectations towards love to complicated relationships with past lovers, these two beautiful melodic songs created a perfect ending to the first set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a fifteen-minute break, during which the sun started to go down and the volume of the crowd went up, FONTINE returned singing \u201cFront Porch.\u201d She then let the audience know that this set would be more familiar. The first half of this set had a definite indie-rock feel. During songs like \u201cImposter\u201d and \u201cNight Hours,\u201d FONTINE showed off her vocal range and incorporated a raspy style of singing that was much different from the smooth melodies of the first set. After these two stand-out tracks, FONTINE brought us back to her roots, singing \u201cHomemaker,\u201d the first song on her EP, with high, tender vocals. The performance changed tone again when FONTINE and the band played \u201cGood Buddy,\u201d a cheeky song about queer, country relationships and giddy fun love. FONTINE closed out the show with the title track from her album Yarrow Lover<\/em>. The crowd sang and hummed along to the dreamy, bittersweet song, which made for the perfect end to a lovely evening. FONTINE seemed genuinely happy to have spent the night on the Lyric stage, and I look forward to hearing more from her soon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bradi Breckman Some music is best listened to while lying in the grass on a warm summer night. Local artist FONTINE\u2019s indie-folk tracks certainly fit into this category, making it obvious why she was picked to perform in Assiniboine Park’s Summer Entertainment Series. This concert series featured local artists at the outdoor Lyric Theatre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[1461,1688,1689],"class_list":["post-12839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-live-bait","tag-concert-review","tag-fontine","tag-lyric-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12840,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12839\/revisions\/12840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}