Shania and Britt

Shania Twain and Britt Daniel don't share much, I keep telling myself. Google tells me so too. Petite international songbird from Timmins, Ontario; lanky indie-type of the pop margins. Shania often performs live in front of a wind-tunnel fan, giving her locks a breezy take-my-photo look; with Britt you should be warned to keep the lens cap on for fear of flying spittle.

But last night, on the moistened stage at Club Soda, Britt Daniel, lead of Austin-band Spoon, hit his nasal falsettos with Shania-like regularity. He strummed along in an incredibly dreamy, slowed-down version of "I Summon You" that did something to me only "Forever and For Always" has done before: Took an annoyingly high pitch, overly repetitive verse and sang it over and over until I caved. There's just something about a little vocal tic they both do - Shania's is kind of a "aghhh-uhhhh" while Britt goes more like "uhhh-honnh". Sold!

Like Shania, Britt Daniel makes for a very charismatic performer - even when he stops singing. He praised the audience which was filled with young'uns in t-shirts who bopped along enthusiastically to grooves like "They Never Got You", a choice Hall & Oates-inspired cut. Earlier, after a five-song set to start the show, Britt waxed nostalgic about the last stop in town - Fall 2002 at Casa del Popolo, he recalled - and then made it no secret that a crowd twenty times Casa's was getting him pumped up. He spat (respectfully to an empty area stage-left - another potential Shania-like bit of politesse though I've yet to see her spit), he danced (often with his guitar in an interesting bit of choreography), he said goodnight by way of a shrieking and sincere 'wo-hoo!' and then he exited into the night leaving adoring fans screaming for another encore. But no, the echo of the heavy-duty rockout of "My Mathematical Mind" would be final song of the evening and never again the Twain shall meet.