Victoria Canal in Concert with Lucy Clearwater
191 Toole Avenue
Tucson, AZ
March 29, 2024
by Mary Andrews
Victoria Canal made her first visit to Tucson, Arizona on her tour promoting her most recent EP release, Well Well. 191 Toole is a relatively small venue and as soon as Canal took the stage she coined the show a ‘living room’ concert. She seemed to be awestruck by the landscape she has seen since she has been in Arizona. She presently lives in London. Needless to say, there is a big difference in the scenery. As in most living room concerts, the atmosphere was relaxed and friendly.
Multi-instrumentalist, Lucy Clearwater performed a 30 minute set singing her self-penned songs from her upcoming EP release, April. Clearwater is a consumate singer/songwriter whose set was a prime example of an intimate yet dynamic acoustic performer. She is touring North America alongside her BFF, Canal. As an old soul and world traveler, Clearwater’s songs are emotional and vulnerable. She is well worth checking out if she is in your area of the world.
Canal casually saundered on stage followed by Clearwater and her bass player. She starts playing keyboards, but she is just as comfortable donning her guitar early in the set. Her voice was commanding yet vulnerable at times quickly engaged the crowd.
The show is all about her songwriting. Canal introduces each song with a story of how she came to write the songs.Her songs address issues such as depression, grief, body dysmorphia, and queerness. Sbe has a way of softening the heavy topics. “Braver” is about her mother, who grew up in Alabama and Georgia but emigrated to Spain. “You’re braver than I’ve ever been,” the chorus runs, and Canal spoke about how her mother not only moved to a country whose language she couldn’t speak but also broke off an engagement in order to marry the first man she met in Spain, Canal’s father.
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While introducing “Yes Man,” Canal mentioned that she wrote the song while on a writing retreat in Spain with Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay. He gave her the task of writing a song on his Veillette Gryphon guitar in the time it took for him to do his daily laps of the pool. Canal accomplished the task very well.
“She Walks In” addresses body image and body dysmorphia. Around the most brutal lines of the song, “I’m ugly and nothing will fix it, I’ll never be pretty to you.” Canal seemed unable to sing at moments.
During most of the set, Canal is very relaxed onstage, feeding off the energy of the fans. She encouraged audience members to hug single members in the crowd (And they did just that). Canal’s default sound is a whispery head voice, but at times, she sang with loud, wide, pain-filled wails. iIf the song touched something unexpected inside her, the crowd was very aware of Canal’s feelings.
Canal created an atmoshere of self acceptance.Throughout the night she took every opportunity to speak to her audience. She touched upon her struggles with her body image and that it helps to know that many people are struggling with it too. She performed an encore per request from her audience after she jokingly said she hadn’t prepared an encore but would “pull one out of my ass and come back if you want me to.” Canal’s lyrics and dynamic vocals truly made her stand out on stage. If you have the opportunity to experience Canal’s concert, please go.
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