Nourished By Time Ignites Passion at Le Studio TD

This being the first concert I've attended solo, I had no idea what to expect walking into Studio TD last week to see Nourished By Time. Showing up fifteen minutes before showtime to a practically empty room made me feel too visible, too seen. But people pooled in, and it allowed me to observe the demographic and feel present in the room, alone but part of a collective. 

Standing in the spaced-out crowd, I noticed a dad and his daughter joking together at a table and an older couple in front of me with arms around each other. A familiar face walked through the crowd, and it took me a second to realize it had been Marcus of Nourished By Time (himself!) making his way somewhere in the back of the crowd to watch the opening act. 

Zsela paralyzed us all with a sound that moved through every inch of the space. She paired the smoothest of voices with a bass that felt like the building would collapse on us with every drop, but the crowd stood hypnotized, swaying and staring at her fluid presence. She snapped us out of it by requesting two deep breaths from the room, and I knew that I was in for something spiritually awakening. 

Nourished By Time had a similar effect, immediately getting to business with his first song off of The Passionate Ones, “Automatic Love”. The first thing that drew me to his stage presence was a pink scarf he kept with him, dancing with it and taking ownership of the stage more and more with every movement and verse. I’m not exaggerating when I say he never. stopped. moving. And neither did I, something I didn’t think I’d be capable of, being so self-conscious just a moment earlier. It was when he played “Daddy”, probably my absolute favourite song of his, that I felt the energy rise significantly around me. Some of us were jumping up and down, and I didn’t even care to think of how silly I must have looked because it felt so necessary, especially with his next song being “9 2 5”, the most fun track off the recent album. He tied his scarf around the wire of the mic right near the top, and proceeded to raise it in the air above his head and then slung it over his shoulder, allowing the long pink scarf to drape over him as he worked the keys. Someone at the very front was filming with a PlayStation Vita, which put my little digicam to shame. 

“It’s all for him” is what I have written in my notes from that night. He danced as if he were the only person in the room, alone with his music and himself. As he sang “Max Potential”, the lyrics mirrored his act and album concept so accurately: “You’re not passionate at all, and that’s all on you.”. Songs like that make you want to lock yourself in your room for days and never stop creating. The older gentleman who was with his wife from earlier was in front of me and was wearing a backwards hat that said “(art)”, and I thought, “yes! yes! exactly!”. 

With a diverse demographic, the most heart-wrenching (yet unavoidably danceable) music, and the fueling of passion in your heart, Nourished By Time is a performance everyone

should see if they wish to be reminded that we should all be working towards something greater than ourselves, and that you should never stop moving.