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Cat Power, Union Chapel, June 20 2003

added 02 July 2003 at 05.29

Cat Power is long-haired scary lady Chan (pronounced Sean) Marshall. She’s an urban folk fuck head a bit like Elliot Smith, but darker. Her cortege comprises one bass playing singing violinist, one red-wine-swilling guitarist and one very reticent drummer. They look like proper musicians - slightly unfashionable - and they can play.

A simple rendition of ‘Good Woman’ lulls everyone into a false sense of security then ‘I Don’t Blame You’ follows and the audacious weirdness begins; it’s in a strange key with a different beat and ruined, really. The chaotic urge is reigned in for a couple of numbers (including a version of M. Ward‘s ‘Sad Sad Song’) then violinist Margaret’s birthday means it time to get champagne everywhere.

Chan’s songs require a gentle touch - drumsticks sound like brushes – but her breathy tones are surprising powerful. High harmonies and soft beats wrap the sound of the piano. The singer decides to share the half bottle of whiskey nestling on the keyboard’s shoulder with the crowd (“Not all of it!”) then her vocals slur and melt into a grand climactic covers medley. There’s a sweary ‘Satisfaction’, ‘Dead Leaves On The Dirty Ground’ and then a fag break before ‘Black Sabbath’ leads to ‘Knocking On Heaven’s Door’.

The intro to ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’ means it’s time for Chan to get up. She knocks over the whiskey, totters off stage and clambers barefoot, singing away, into the unlit crowd and sits down for a while. She climbs back hollering “Fuck the pain away/ We need love” and in a final flash of pissed inspiration starts screaming into Margaret’s violin pick up. The women on this stage are definitely more dominant than the men and their quintessentially female sense of tragic humour reaches through the sad songs. Cat Power kicks some male fans as she goes off stage and in a final act of discourtesy she denies her crowd an encore. What a fabulous nutter she is.

Jane McCormick Smith

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