Cat Power - Live @ the Powerstation, Auckland
Once upon a time, I drove for ten hours to get to Auckland with my good friend Dee.
We left Wellington/Masterton and it was cold, windy and raining. We got to Taupo and the sky was blue. We got to Auckland and we were sweating in unmentionable places. We got to the motel and I threw up 4 times. I blame the heat, the lack of water, or both. Bed by 9.30.
The next morning I woke up, thankfully, feeling good. I hate Auckland, don't get me wrong, but I was glad to be there. Because being there meant we were finally getting to see Cat Power live.
When I first found out that she was coming to New Zealand in support of Jukebox I was absolutely gutted because there was only one show and it was, obviously, in Auckland. I had resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going. But then an angel named Dee said she'd go with me and I called Ticketmaster straight away, securing two very reasonably priced tickets. I then danced around the office gleefully.
Following a pretty shocking trip in a taxi (biiiiiiig fuck you to Auckland Co-Op Taxis...) we arrived at the Powerstation. The sky threatened to unload it's rainy goodness on us as we stood in a rapidly expanding line. I hadn't queued for a gig in forever. Few deserved the HONOUR.
The doors opened just as it started to rain. Kiwis are so shy. No one went near the stage... everyone just sat crammed into the spaces that surrounded the main floor. We sat, poised like hawks, waiting for the first sign of movement towards the stage. Eventually some brave soldiers went for it and then like lightning the front of the stage was full. And we were right there, slap bang in the middle. Nicely played.
The Teacups were the support. I was suitably delighted to see the girl who had enabled Broken Social Scene to play 7/4 Shoreline live at San Frindigo a couple of weeks earlier (by...uh... singing Feist's parts), as she was the main singer girl. I thought they were lovely and very brave to play such prissy sissy pretty music to a crowd of uncaring bastards. Well, I only mean uncaring in that there was the typical rowdy obnoxious bar noises. I think the crowd enjoyed them. It's always a big bonus to enjoy the support act. They got a warm round of applause following their final song, but not because it was their final song, but because it was about Harry Potter.
Then we waited.
And waited.
And then we waited some more.
The CD being played over the PA repeated a couple of times. Bonus track was the Werewolf by Luke Buda. That's why I'm howling at the moon. AAHHHWHOOOOOOOOOOO...
We stared around wildly, looking for any sign of movement and saw Chan Marshall milling about at the side of the stage. Once the setlists were down and each stage possie furnished with towels and bottled water I figured we were good to go. Someone flicked a light on and off and the crowed screamed in delight, thinking this was the universal signal to turn the music off. Alas, another song cranked and the crowd collectively "Awwwwwwwwwed" in disappointment... which made the people side stage laugh. LAUGH IT UP BASTARDS. People started yelling out to hurry up and when the Dirty Delta Blues eventually ambled on stage someone actually yelled out "ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!" which was both funny and incredibly obnoxious.
I bloody love the way the first song of a gig ends up being an obsession for me. The boys played the intro to Don't Explain, but Chan was nowhere to be seen.
An extended intro set the slinky mood and proudly, I was the first to spot her creep on stage and was the lone voice whooping in delight. She acknowledged the crowd with a hand on her heart and then...
Oh my stars. That voice. "Hush now... don't explain..." and the crowd roared in appreciation. The song kicked it up a notch and the band began belting their instruments. It was surreal. We were staring up in awe. I mean, literally up too. There was no gap between the stage and the audience so from our spot Chan was mere centimetres away during some parts. We had to keep looking at each other to giggle and acknowledge just how weird it was. We were so close that we could hear her foot tapping.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chatter...
Just for the record, it has to be said that Chan Marshall is a stunningly beautiful woman. Absolutely flawless. She looks exactly how she is represented in magazines, except she's just THAT much more gorgeous in the flesh. But as enchanting as her appearance is, her voice is about ten million times more hypnotic that her thickly circled eyes.
She roamed the stage, lit up by the spotlight, wiggling her hips and occasionally pulling her jeans out of her arse. At one stage she pulled her fly up again as it had travelled south a little. And even as she pulled Joe Cockereqsue screwed up faces she remained incredibly poised and lovely.
Woman Left Lonely and Silver Stallion fabulously led into New York which was rightfully very exciting for all n sundry. Fuck all the idiot reviewers who say it's the weakest track on the album (I'm looking at you Francesca Rudkin - further proof that album reviews are about the most pointless thing out there). It was as funky and smooth as you could imagine.
Ramblin' (Wo)man was... spectacular. But don't take MY word for it!
Watch the video!
So close.
I do have the setlist, but I don't think she stuck to the order so I'm not going to try to track-by-track detail the night.
She played every song off Jukebox except I Believe in You, and also did Naked If I Want To and She's Got You from the bonus disc (complete with hilariously theatrical enunciation of the chorus. The girls behind us were giggling each time she spat out "...but she's got yeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww")
Nothing from You Are Free (when a bunch of people called out for He War she claimed not to know that song... and I was too high on the love of the moment that it didn't occur to me to request anything, let alone Good Woman). She did however perform roughly half of The Greatest which was so surreal I had to pinch myself. I kept forgetting I was there and it wasn't a video I was watching. During one song she stood on the edge of the stage and her foot was right there... all clad in freaky white shoes, her mic cord dangling around our faces, threat ening to whack us in the nose. And we were looking directly up her nose.
At another point she crouched down on the other side of the foldback monitor which was infront of me and looked directly into my eyes. I responded not by smiling, but my resting my chin on my hands clasped together. You know that episode of the Simpsons where Nelson, Bart, Milhouse and Martin rent a car and Nelson makes them go see Andy Williams in concert? And Nelson's reaction to Moon River? Yeah, that was me.
Hearing The Greatest live was unbelievable. Sounds completely different without the back up singers and the Memphis Rhythm Band but still so amazing. Ditto Lived In Bars (with its updated lyrics.. "I used to think there was nothing like living in a bottle. I used to think there was nothing like ending it all for the world..."
Her voice is so strikingly precise too. I mean, even the best of them hit bum notes, and maybe my ears were packed with the gauze of love, but every note sounded perfect. Her voice is so rich it shivers up and down your spine before settling in your heart. Or crotch depending on the song.
Could We was completely reworked, it would have been unrecognizable to me if I hadn't already heard the version they did. Complete with semi obscene hand gestures letting us know the song is indeed, about sexytimes. Hearing Willie was unreal too. Willie and Rebecca also earned a hand gesture similar to Could We.
She dedicated Song To Bobby to Chris Knox who was perched up in the curtained off VIP section (with Oliver Driver and ... uh... yeah, I dunno) by calling it Song To Chris Knox. Watching her singing such a personal song was something special... I mean, she's a fan, like us. She sang about missing out on a meeting with Dylan and then muttered jokingly "fuck it".
But perhaps the most memorable song for me was Metal Heart. I had tears stinging my eyes. None spilled but that song was quite possibly the most beautiful musical experience of my life. Chan is lucky that Eddie Vedder did Stuff and Nonsense with Tim and not Neil Finn, because then there may have been some fair competition, but seriously folks. Metal Heart OWNED me. You must acquire yourself a copy. It'll make you cry like a baby. If you have a heart that's not MADE OF METAL (boom boom).
There were a couple of other covers that I wasn't familiar with and joyfully she also did Satisfaction by the Stones, but not the Covers Record way... she did it the Stones way so it was sufficiently rocking. A couple of songs were performed even though they weren't noted on the setlist, like Where Is My Love?
I'd been warned that she was a bit temperamental on stage but I had decided based on the videos I had seen of her that was she was all good, especially with a band behind her. But the warnings couldn't have been less accurate. She was warm and funny and pranced around the stage happily. She was winking and laughing and when she introduced her band one by one and the spotlight returned to her, she was introduced as being the woman from Georgia who we were all there to see and she shouted "ME!!!!! IT'S ME!!!!!!"
The Dirty Delta Blues were outstanding. There was some chemistry flying between Chan and her keyboardist. The bass player sorta hung back in the shadows. The drummer blew my fucking mind, he was just so freakin' good. And the guitarist was like a skinny jeans wearing Aragorn.
There was none of that encore business. The band wandered off the stage once they were spent and Chan remained on stage alone, blowing kisses and waving to people. She then grabbed a handful of setlists and licked them before handing them out to the audience. We lucked out because she dropped two right on our hands.
Look. The blue smudge to the left of Ramblin was where she licked it. I have CAT POWER DNA AND WILL CLONE HER SO I CAN KEEP HER ON A SHELF IN MY ROOM AND LOVE HER AND HUG HER AND SQUEEZE HER!!!!
And then it was over. We wandered off in a daze, content as hell but hurting slightly at the fact that we knew it was over. But so so so happy I went. Can't imagine missing it now. Can't believe I was resigned to missing it. What an idiot.
For more fun and excitement, look at the bigger sized photos. I couldn't believe my luck being that close. It's a shame I can barely operate a camera, but some of them I think are pretty ... okay.
Cat Power photos