Cat Power performed her signature of transformed covers mixed in with some great originals Tuesday night at the Avalon in Hollywood. The songs are most all about emotional pain in some form or another, usually concerning a past or future man or a dream just dreamt or one deferred. I have always listened more to emotional content than the words, and her voice sends shivers. She is way more intense live than on record. I understand why a singer like her would sing from side of the stage as much as the front with the lights pretty subdued. She is someone to listen to first anyway — amazing voice. And she was all about the music, saying little more than “how are you LA” after one song and “bye” at the slightly surreal end.
In a couple of telling moments, she sprayed her throat off to to the side, where she would listen to the band between belting out verses — another high roller in the decibels per pound sweepstakes. A singer I knew used to use Chloroseptic spray to get through a gig when his throat was sore from singing too hard. It numbs enough to sing through the pain. The image seems apt even if I am as far from the truth as last time I engaged in such unwarranted speculation. A second moment occurred during the first song. Some old guy (maybe 10 yrs older than me 🙂 came up to the sound board, where I had staked out my spot, and told the sound man her vocals were not loud enough. The sound man, who either got to know the band quick or works and travels with them, said “she doesn’t want to be louder” and sent the old guy packing. There was a lot of room both in the mix and the set for the band to stretch out. She would often move off to the side and let them have at it.
Her Dirty Delta Blues Band are all vets of the punk-blues and indie scene. Guitarist Judah Bauer, from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion,played cutting guitar that moved fluidly between rhythm and lead, with haunting swells making him sound a little pedal-steelish sometimes. Go-to drummer of the indie scene Jim White was spot on live as he is on Jukebox. Erik Paparazzi played solid bass. Finally Gregg Foreman played blues and gospel tinged piano and organ most of the time, but also had some seriously raunchy analog synth action happening, which you would think would not work well with the other stuff, but it did, producing some of the most experimentally interesting moments. I am not good with song names or I’d say which one, but he did this haunting intro with Paparazzi for one of the songs from Jukebox. Unfortunately, someone decided he should trade vocals with her, a big mistake. All you could say was that he was on key, but it was kind of embarrassing to situate his flat affect delivery against Power’s raw emotion. They brilliantly reworked Creedence Clearwater’s “Fortunate Son,” slowing it down and mixing in the “oo ooh” backup vocals from “Sympathy for the Devil” — funny and brilliant. The grand finale was another analog noisefest punctuated by Power passing out flowers from bouquets she had presumably received from fans. The band was great, but they seemed to get into a particular rut of Power stepping off to the side while they worked out an instrumental section that would bring a song to its close. This got a bit repetitive after a while, but is a minor complaint about an otherwise brilliant band. It was a far cry from her infamously erratic performances of yore and more in line with how her life has turned.
Opening band Fool’s Gold, from LA, had great energy, it it was kind of a wonder that we went from their tremendously upbeat music to Cat Power’s much more subdued delivery — it speaks a lot to the talents of both. My favorite moment from them was “Ha Dvash” which managed to get Tianawaren-sounding Tuareg desert guitar with the chords and beat of “Don’t Rock the Boat Baby.” And I guess it is in Hebrew. Fool’s Gold pitch themselves as tropical, drawing heavily on Afropop, but try as I might, I kept hearing space for fiddles and the drone of bagpipes in the three guitars. It left me wondering if there is a category for “Afro-Scotch.” I think in part it was the guitars not quite getting the polyrhythmic thumb-piano and xylophone derived rhythm playing of the best soukous and other Afropop guitarists. Mind you it still sounds great if you just give up the desire for authenticity, which is way overrated in music, and embrace your inner Scotsperson along with your Juju-dancing, high-life playing Afropoppish self. The ryhthm section was awesome, especially Argentinian percussionist Erica Garcia, who played full-body percussion, sometimes stretching time to its limits while other times being totally in the pocket. She was funnest to watch, but the rest of the formidable drum and percussion crew were also excellent, as you will discover if you give them a listen. You can do that on myspace (change the text color or the background so we can read it though!) or live at the Echo in Echo Park every Monday night if I heard right (better check before going though).
Finally, as always, give a listen to rreplay and the rest of my music on way.net.