After penning a gushing plug for Toronto artist Final Fantasy — civilian name, Owen Pallett — in Up & Coming, I was nervous about his slot opening for Bloc Party last night. I loved FF’s recent album He Poos Clouds far too much to expect anything less than brilliance, but how would a solo singer-violinist go over with a bunch of fans revved up for the KNDD-friendly dance-rock of BP?

As it turned out, they seemed to really dig it. Owen (dressed in a modest black shirt and slacks) was joined by his friend Stephanie Comilang, who accompanied the music with visuals on an overhead projector. It was a simple device, providing just enough eye candy to keep folks engaged (although, as one patron behind me noted, Pallett is easy on the eyes, too). And the normally cavernous sound at the Paramount actually enhanced and opened up his sonic mix of vocals, FX and strings, rather than muddying things up.

According to his road manager, the Paramount was the biggest indoor venue Pallett had ever played, but he came off pretty relaxed. After flubbing the intro to one song, he stopped and restarted: "New song jitters," he admitted, grinning. "Great idea, testing out new material on a crowd full of impatient teenagers."

Pallett also praised his fellow warm-up act, Smoosh, predicting that in five years the ladies would be writing hits for big Top 40 artists like Christina Aquilera. "They're gonna be the new Matrix... or Scott Storch." Some people grumbled at this suggestion, which seemed odd, since a) Smoosh do craft super-catchy songs and b) folks were perfectly content to groove along to radio hits by Beyoncé, Kelis, et al during the between-band breaks.

Final Fantasy is also playing with Bloc Party in Vancouver, BC tonight, and in PDX tomorrow — catch him if you can.