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Cat Power, Shepherd's Bush Empire, March 31 2004

added 02 April 2004 at 16.52

She ambles out into the theatre as the old blues songs still pour out of the PA. Cat Power is accompanied only by her guitar, which she plugs in awkwardly never even glancing in our direction. This 32-year-old Southern Belle is known to be a little stage shy and tonight will be no exception.

"You'll airbrush my fatness right?" says the self-effacing singer, real name Chan (pronounced Shaun) Marshall, but really no one can see any. Instead the gathered, some of whom shout declarations of love, want a glimpse of those intimately soul-bearing dark, brown eyes hidden under her fringe. But we hardly ever get one.

'Sittin' On A Ruin' is what she's been scribbling recently and becomes a nervous joke for the rest of the night. But the instant Marshall opens her full, round mouth, the poignancy and melancholy that spills out through her breathy, beguiling voice is enough to quell all the sympathetic laughter in the world.

Just like the childlike jiggling of her feet, there is an overwhelmingly endearing innocence to this performance and the soft strumming of Bonnie Prince Billy's 'Wolf Among Wolves' casts an evocative spell. 'I Don't Blame You' from last year's 'You Are Free' is a celestial treat suggesting an inspired calmness beneath her skittish demeanour. But we can barely see it.

Instead there are soulful snatches of 'Can I Get A Witness?' and 'Satisfaction', unfinished songs because Chan can't remember the words and fidgety cigarette smoking that stops her mid-bar. If all that outpouring of inner thoughts had been saved for the hauntingly emotional folk-soaked tunes, then tonight could have been perfect. But it isn't.

There is nothing perfect about Cat Power or her, at times, erratic show but there is a real life intensity, a sadness, a rawness and an energy that is unique. And we felt it.

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