Nelly Furtado – Commodore Ballroom – January 9, 2013
Hitting the road in support of her first English language album since 2006, Nelly Furtado launched her “Spirit Indestructible Tour” this week in her home town of Victoria. The 
following evening she played Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom, where I caught the show.
After a shaky sounding start to the opening number “Spirit Indestructible” she found her groove and sailed through the next hour and half playing most of her best loved hits including; “Say It Right”, “Do It”, “Força”, “Try”, “Promiscuous” and “I’m Like A Bird”. As with all her songs, the new tracks from “The Spirit Indestructible” can’t be pigeon holed into one genre. There’s urban sound of “Big Hoops”, Euro-Dance on “Waiting For The Night” and bubble gum/hip hop on “Parking Lot” (performed in a cute ‘girl group’ style with opening act Jessica Tyler and her backing singer). Combine the country/folk duet “Be Ok” 
with opening act Dylan Murray and her solo rendition of her Michael Buble collaboration, “Quando, Quando, Quando” and pretty much every style was covered in the show. The crowd was as equally diverse as the music, covering a wide range of demographics. Nelly tried to engage and interact through the night, at one point forgetting her lyrics to one of the new tracks and having to restart with a slight moment of embarrassment. Another adlibed moment was the slightly strange Grim Reaper walking onstage with a “Bucket List” bucket, in which she had asked 
people to share a bucket list item in, which she read a few aloud. Having been out of the limelight for a few years and seemingly little promotion for the show may have resulted in the older skewing and smaller audience. Ms Furtado and her backing band did their best to keep the interest of the limited crowd but lost a few of them based on the amount of chatter in the room. Overall it was a fun and entertaining show to welcome Nelly back to the live stage.
Nelly Furtado’s “Spirit Indestructible Tour” continues throughout January
Find her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter at @NellyFurtado