Last night was my second time seeing the delicate flower Chan Marshall live, and while it wasn’t a train wreck like the last time (Irving Plaza 03), it was far from good. Cat Power is a great singer and songwriter, but she sorely lacks as a stage performer. I had heard great stories about the new sober Cat, and how great she was at the Town Hall, but I beg to differ, this Cat had not changed her spots. Her stage banter was largely unintelligble and/or inaudible, her stage lighting was non-existent (a famously annoying trademark), and she seemed to be making her set up on the fly. There was no onstage breakdown and only one false start to my recollection, but she just doesn’t deliver the goods as a performer, and that’s just too bad because she has great songs. On the plus side, I would go to the Hiro Ballroom again, it’s a attractive room with a nice vibe, I can only imagine what it would be like to see a real performer there. Here are some photos (for the many of you who never saw her face last night):
PS I forgot to mention another little beef about this show. The doors were scheduled to open at 7:00 PM, but they did not, in fact, open until 8:00 PM. So people who got there at 7 o’clock, were stuck standing out in the freezing cold for an hour plus. Once the line started moving, it moved at what could only be called a snail’s pace. Because the show was announced so late, most of the tickets bought were “will call”, so everyone was having their ID’s checked at the door, which made for further delays.