Concert Review: La Force @ Union Stage (12/11/23)

“Don’t apologize. Don’t ask permission. None of that Canadian shit!” – Ariel Engle

Ariel Engle, performing under her stage name La Force, wooed the burgeoning crowd at Union Stage on December 11th, while performing a moving set (opening for Patrick Watson).

Ariel is touring for her second solo album, XO SKELETON (via Secret City Records), released last September.

She played seven songs, including at least four from the new album. The title track, “xo skeleton”, speaks to the inevitability of death. We can’t escape it, so how do you deal with it as you live? The lyrics also add the metaphorical dimension that the armor of a skeleton cannot fully protect you. She thought of the song when her insurance agent said, “God forbid you should die.” And the theme of the album was born.

Next came the fervently soulful “october” from XO SKELETON, which sparked a fire of memory in my temporal lobe. Is this a familiar French pop song wrapped in the muted colors of Autumn? Is this something new? My brain landed on familiarity, but a song completely its own. It seems to speak to the sense that we can have all the powerful feelings we want, but we are still like other animals, on the same journey of life and death. Yet the feelings we experience from interacting with other people shape who we are, including after they are gone. As it turns out, “october” was my favorite song from the too short set.

She spoke with the crowd a decent amount, including giving us the wistful nugget of a quote at the top with a chuckle, and to also opine that ‘DC is known for a lot things, but the best thing is Ethiopian food!’ to a small murmur of consideration. The crowd wasn’t quite there yet – excellent but not ‘the best thing about DC’ – but Ariel was unfazed, and I’m sure she doubled down and had Ethiopian food on the way out.

She performed with two band members, one on the drums, and the other on guitar and the occasional keyboard. She switched between playing a regular guitar and a small, square guitar (a cigar box guitar?). There was a certain understated intensity in her performance, like she had to hold back because to actually go full force would obliterate those in the crowd hanging on every note and lyric. The stage was awash in a deep rich hue of red lights that persisted throughout the entire set, so everyone in Union Stage glowed red.

Ariel is from Montreal, Quebec and started her solo career in 2018, with her self-titled debut album, La Force. She was also among the stalwart vocalists of the Canadian rock band, Broken Social Scene, for a few years. The lineup is vast and everchanging, but I saw her perform with the band in 2017 at the 9:30 Club (on their tour for the album Hug of Thunder). Before Broken Social Scene, she collaborated as a vocalist with many different bands, including a project with her husband (Andrew Whiteman, also of Broken Social Scene) called AroarA. Therefore, it was not surprising that she later became an integral part of Patrick Watson’s headlining set, as the bringer of intense moods through impassioned vocal melodies. While Patrick sang or played the piano, with a four-person string section behind him, Ariel sang from deep down, mostly without lyrics, and it all came together as something ethereal or otherworldly. There was a different tenor to her own music, but the melodies were just as rich when put to words.

When Ariel introduced “how do you love a man”, the third single from XO SKELETON, as a ‘song for the dead’, the album’s theme was solidified. It speaks to asking the universe how to love someone when they are dead. Do they know you still exist?

The final song was “Upside Down Wolf” from her first album, which was my second favorite from the night. This song is lighter in mood, ‘I don’t have patience for hate, I do have love of love charity and kindness’, but the music still demands full attention. It sounded like a million different instruments were in play, flitting around Ariel’s atmospherically inclined vocals. Eventually it morphed into a sampling of “Pump Up the Jam” by Technotronic. People danced, they laughed, they cried, and it was only just beginning. Next: Patrick Watson.

Find your way onto the interwebs, and buy a copy of XO SKELETON so you too can enjoy La Force. You won’t regret it.

Setlist