last time i saw you, you were on stage
I think I may have been the only person stupid/dorky/brilliant enough to do it, but yesterday I spent the hours of 5pm-11:30pm (minus a break for dinner) watching Cat Power at Richard's.
Last time I saw Miss Marshall, it was in Seattle with the Memphis Rhythm band providing, not only musical back up, but also emotional support, rendering fears of aborted numbers, crying, or otherwise erratic behaviour null. Last time I saw her solo - in Seattle back in 2003 - she only managed to make it through two or three songs in full, and then left after muttering "goodnight, my name is shit head." Which, in part, was the reason I decided to attend both "An afternoon with..." and "An evening with...;" Unlike the evening at the Showbox, Sleater-Kinney wasn't going to save the night with a headlining set, and I figured one of the two had to go off without some sort of breakdown. It seems that her much publicized drying out has done wonders for her "quirky" stage manner, as both shows went off smooth as silk... by Cat Power standards.
As Rob illuminated for me in his take on the early show, as a pretty huge Cat Power fan, my view of "without a hitch" is probably much different from your casual fan's. Actually, the differing views can probably be summed up in the following conversation I had with my friend Shea following the afternoon show:
Me: Wow, that was great, she barely stopped any songs.
Shea: It was great... but she stopped, like, every third song.
Me: Yeah, hardly at all.
My other favourite singer/songwriter is Ryan Adams, so my standards are pretty low on the reliability front.
Chan played for about an hour and 45 minutes for the afternoon set, only stopping because the "kids" (who were mostly adults who were to slow to snag tix for the evening's proceedings) had to be out of Richard's at 7pm sharp. The evening show went for an extra half hour or so, and the setlist mirrored the afternoon, with about a half dozen extra songs, and a couple swaps of tracks from the Greatest.
She pulled mostly from her latest long-player, making it through eight (i think) of its twelve songs. As much as I love the Chan-in-Memphis type arrangements, I like my Cat Power stripped down, so the sparse arrangements (either piano/vox or guitar/vox) were welcomed. The set was rounded out by a handful of tracks from You Are Free ("Maybe Not," "I Don't Blame You," "Good Woman" twice each, and "Names" during the evening show), a handful from The Covers Record ("Satisfaction," "Wild is the Wind," "Kingsport Town," "Paths of Victory"), two new songs, and a ton of covers. Amongst the latter, highlights included a slightly altered version of Juvenile's verse from the Hot Boys' "I Feel" (dead serious) and a medley of "Blue Moon/(All I Have To Do Is) Dream/Try A Little Tenderness."
I was packing my film camera with me, but the room was dead silent, so after snapping one shot in the afternoon and being appalled by how audible the shutter was, I shelved the camera. Rob's got a couple of snaps up.
Unrelated question... my iPod Shuffle stopped working. It won't mount in the updater, I can't format it through windows (although I can see it in explorer), and it doesn't show up in iTunes. My iTunes is fine, because my Video iPod works without a hitch. I got it for free, so I suppose it's not the end of the world if its busted, but if anyone has any miracle cure, I'd be much obliged if you'd let me know.
now playing: Dead Kennedys - MTV - Get Off The Air
4 Comments:
That Shuffle sounds pretty dead...
I've never seen Cat Power, but my girlfriend has one of the more uplifting stores about her I've ever heard: she managed to get through an hour, then stopped, looked at a guy in the audience, said "you're coming backstage with me", and dragged him to her dressing room (thus ending the show). It may have been a shortened performance, but at least it didn't end in tears...
By 
, at
2:48 p.m.
Your iPod probably died.
My girlfriends did that a few weeks ago. It just flashes light when you try to play it, and won't mount.
My mum's was doing a similar thing, but it just took a long time to mount, and I had accidentally erased all the songs.
Those are my two suggestions from experience.
-scott
By , at
6:40 p.m.
Quinny it's Gina!
I'm so happy I found out through your blog Mew is coming!
Yet another reason for reading this thing everyday - can't let another Sufjan Stevens to happen again!
By , at
11:26 p.m.
2nd Andrew Bird show was added...early show, same day at the media club
By , at
11:02 a.m.
