My Brightest Diamond @ the Drake Underground

I kind of overdosed on ethereal, introspective female singer-songwriters in the ‘90s. It’s the reason why I haven’t been able to get into Cat Power or Feist, despite their talent. But once in a while one will come along and pique my interest. The last one was Laura Veirs; the latest is My Brightest Diamond, whom I discovered via Fabulist.

While waiting at the Drake for a friend to show up, I shared the lobby with a gaggle of girls who were happily chatting and squealing like teenagers. Turns out one of them was Katie Stelmanis, the first act of the night. Poking about the internet reveals that Miss Stelmanis is part of local grrrl band Galaxy, who, coincidentally, are playing with the D'urbervilles (yet another band I mean to check out) later this month at Sneaky Dee's.

She looked like she was about 15. It didn't help that she stood alone on the stage with her synth, dwarfed by the other bands' equipment, and often had to stand on tiptoe to reach the microphone. She sounded young, too. She had some original, slightly gothic material that thankfully outweighed the absurdity of a little girl singing and pecking out samples on her keyboard (I couldn't help thinking of Ross from Friends), but she could be so much better with a backing band and a more mature voice.

The next act was Pedestrian, who played solid, epic rock in the Coldplay mold. I thought they were quite good; the frontman had a sensitive, dreamy, Chris Martin-like voice, but the band also knew how to rawk. They were wasted on a sadly sparse audience that seemed to be made up of photographers, Katie Stelmanis's entourage, and typical Torontonian too-cool-for-schoolers who were backed up against the bar as if the stage was radioactive.

Partway through one of their songs, a woman hopped up on stage and started singing backup vocals. It was Shara Worden, a.k.a. My Brightest Diamond. The beauty of her voice comes through on the recordings, but when she opened her mouth to sing, I was stunned. Her singing is absolutely phenomenal live.

Pedestrian was her backing band as well the opener, and her set surprised me by how much it rocked. I had expected her to be more ethereal and dreamy; I'd pegged her as a Kate Bush/Beth Orton type. But Pedestrian's presence -- and I guess her own live personality -- pushed her songs in a different direction, and she was much better than I'd imagined. (And I'd imagined her to be pretty good.) She wasn't dreamy or introspective; she was sublime. I hope that she comes back to Toronto and plays a larger venue, because she would be awesome in a club the size of Lee's Palace or Mod Club.

My only complaint was that she did not wear any of the superhero capes, ball gowns or Tudor corsets as promised in her bio. And the horse was a no-show. But I picked up a T-shirt and a CD ($15 and $10, respectively -- a steal!) and I plan to push her on everyone at work today.

Katie Stelmanis website
Pedestrian website
Pedestrian on MySpace
My Brightest Diamond website
My Brightest Diamond on MySpace
"Dragonfly" on YouTube
"Something of an End" (live) on YouTube