Cat Power @ The Roundhouse (1/11/06)

I'm gonna open with a little confession here, I'm feeling a tad sad (you'd best be "awwwing"). Myself and Betty (my lady, my love, my arch nemesis) were supposed to go and see The Feeling tonight in Shepherd's Bush but damned if every freakin' train isn't going there today. This, coupled with the length of a bus trip and cost of a taxi eventually broke us and now we sit here, not watching a perfect reimagining of 70's soft-rock brilliance but writing this slightly overdue review of a stunning midweek show we caught in Camden.

The newly refurbished Roundhouse is a lovely venue with great acoustics and a pretty decent view no matter where you are but, to tell the truth, we could've been standing in a piss-stained dungeon with three surly NBA stars standing in our way and we would've been moved to tears. Cat Power you see, is quite simply a breathtaking artist.

Without a support act, we were all made to wait for around for about 90 minutes before the Memphis Rhythm band (with whom Cat (or Chan Marshall for future reference) recorded her most recent, stunning record The Greatest) who proceed to get us all warmed up with a tight, slightly too slap-bassy jam before Miss Power arrives.

And my God, does she arrive. She opens with 'The Greatest', the swelling, economic beauty of which puts tears in my eyes before running through the gorgeous 'Living Proof' and early highlight, 'Lived In Bars'. This troubled singer, particularly in latter, exudes a wonderful sense of grateful melancholy, an affirmation of her triumph over her demons that again, moves you close to tears when she and her backing singers take it up a notch towards the end.

The stuff from The Greatest is almost uniformly excellent with only the odd, self-conscious performance of 'Where Is My Love' falling the wrong side of charming. Throughout, she dances in the whitest way possible but it just adds to her kooky/cool appeal and to the sense that this near-legend within the indie community is going to be okay.

After a quick mid-set break, she re-emerges to play a few older tracks on her own, accompanied either by piano or guitar. 'House Of The Rising Sun' is a playful cover while 'I Don't Blame You' from the stunning You Are Free record is sweet yet empowering stuff. The finest moment comes with the astonishing, heart-stopping cover of 'Wild Is The Wind'. On The Covers Record it's good, but this is just another world of quality, utterly breathtaking in its economic delicacy.

The set finishes raucously with a souped-up cover of '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' before a barn-burning 'Love & Communication'. She leaves the stage to the sound of messianic devotion, the claps, whoops and screams only fading minutes after she was long gone.

Never once did she sound off key or lack conviction and not once did you feel this immense talent waining under the spotlight. This performance puts her up with the greats, a performance of warm assurance and charisma that, while not technically perfect, never hits a bum note. Wonderful.


Cat Power on Amazon.co.uk
Official Site