Final Fantasy

At this year’s Belfast Festival at Queens, the city hosted, for the first time ever, its very own Speigeltent, setting up camp in Custom House Square down by the River Lagan.

Spiegeltents are handmade pavilions that act as traveling dance halls, bars and entertainment ‘salons’. Apparently there are only a handful of these ‘tents of mirrors’ left in the world today, echoing a more burlesque and melodramatic time of entertainment. Since the likes of Marlene Dietrich titillated and captivated audiences on The Speigeltent stage in the 1930s, the magic mirrors that make up its interior have reflected thousands of images of alluring, avant-garde and bizarre performances and equally beguiled and enthralled audiences.

It was in these highly appropriate and intimate surroundings that Final Fantasy, aka Owen Pallett, presented himself to an Irish audience for the first (and hopefully not last) time and proceeded to administer his own unique and peculiar blend of idiosyncratic, luscious chamber-pop. Everyone under the lavish red velvet roof of the Speigeltent was spellbound by this quietly spoken, reserved and charmingly eccentric man.

After briefly introducing himself and his accompanying visual artist, a young Japanese woman, Pallett also requested that the lights be turned down as far as possible; the place was instantly wrapped up in a dreamy, otherworldly atmosphere. Pallett opened with 'This Lamb Sells Condos' and instantly plunged the audience into the heart of rapturous darkness. Sounding like he was backed by a string quartet and a few other vocalists and odd instrumentalists, many of those in the audience who were not familiar with Final Fantasy were looking quite confused as to how such a strong and varied cacophony of sound could be emanating from just one man and his violin.

Accompanying the music was some real-time animation using transparencies and an overhead projector, courtesy of the visual artist. The images were Arthurian and extremely romantic, featuring knights, white horses, princesses and kaleidoscopic colours and adventures, all brought to life by the light-handed, light-hearted artist.

Mainly armed with violin and looping pedal, Pallett teased an impressive array of sounds from his instrument of choice, also using his voice on a number of occasions to layer over tracks, and the desired effect was hypnotic and constantly amazing.

Playing a good mixture of old and new material, Pallett also engaged in quirky and humourous banter with his listeners between songs, citing 'This is The Dream of Win and Regine' as one of his favourites. He also played a cover of a song nobody had heard of – he claimed to have been watching local TV earlier and a show compiling the best-selling songs in Ireland was featured. Pallett thought he’d impress us by covering the supposed second-best-selling song. Or something. He seemed comically perplexed at this one himself. Nice idea, but he’d already impressed with his sheer creativity and intrepidity and had the audience in the palm of his fair hands from the moment he introduced himself.

In a way, perhaps the Belfast audience was not ready for this kind of act. They were pleasantly startled into appreciation, though. Not quite the support act, not quite the main act, Final Fantasy was on an equal billing with another performer this evening – one who is perhaps more well-known locally. Those unfamiliar with Pallett’s array of charming and ever-so-slightly-self-indulgent melodies, with often naughty lyrics, were either highly impressed and intrigued as to who this young man was or they were just so baffled they had no idea what they just witnessed.

I don’t think the bar sold even one drink while Pallett was on stage, and for a Belfast gig that is really saying something. It’s a testament to just how captivating and exciting an act Final Fantasy is.

Photograph by James Gracey