July 9 2007: Cat Power, Dex Romweber Duo - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA
Three things I never thought I'd see at a Cat Power show: dude wearing a Blood Sugar Sex Magik tshirt, dude wearing no shirt at all, the best performance of "Satisfaction" I've ever heard. And now that I think about it, I think it was only the second time I've ever heard anyone try "Satisfaction," cause it takes some pretty huge balls to try and cover one of the greatest rock songs ever. And the last time it was Cat Power doing it solo on an acoustic guitar, but this time it was with a great blues/soul band backing her up and it was fucking fantastic.
Really, the whole set was fantastic. And I claim this despite the fact that I don't much care for her new album, and that I didn't know 75% of the songs she played. The guitarist and the keyboardist could have made anybody sound good, and the rhythm section guys were perfect, and the sound wasn't as awful as I've gotten used to at the Pearl Street. And I wouldn't have thought that I could have ever gotten behind Chan as an instrument-less singer, as in a singer who holds the microphone in her hand and sings into it and doesn't do anything else, but she was great. It would have been pretty hard to try to stand still. I wouldn't know though, cause I didn't try.
And the openers were this guitar/drums duo, and the guitarist/singer was this tall-and-stocky-type dude, no neck, slacks and shoes and white shirt unbuttoned halfway down, big lips, big chest, big sneer, missing some teeth, playing some great old-style blues/rock. The kind of guy who comes to mind when you picture the 45-year-old preacher of a tiny little whitewashed and white-skinned church on an old dirt road somewhere in Alabama, jumping all over the place and banging on the pulpit, testifying to the faithful on a humid 110-degree sunday night, more than willing to literally beat the devil out of you if that's what it takes. I dug his style, and his playing was pretty great too.
All in all, fun times. And I ran into Eidan and she bought me a beer and I was home before midnight.
Really, the whole set was fantastic. And I claim this despite the fact that I don't much care for her new album, and that I didn't know 75% of the songs she played. The guitarist and the keyboardist could have made anybody sound good, and the rhythm section guys were perfect, and the sound wasn't as awful as I've gotten used to at the Pearl Street. And I wouldn't have thought that I could have ever gotten behind Chan as an instrument-less singer, as in a singer who holds the microphone in her hand and sings into it and doesn't do anything else, but she was great. It would have been pretty hard to try to stand still. I wouldn't know though, cause I didn't try.
And the openers were this guitar/drums duo, and the guitarist/singer was this tall-and-stocky-type dude, no neck, slacks and shoes and white shirt unbuttoned halfway down, big lips, big chest, big sneer, missing some teeth, playing some great old-style blues/rock. The kind of guy who comes to mind when you picture the 45-year-old preacher of a tiny little whitewashed and white-skinned church on an old dirt road somewhere in Alabama, jumping all over the place and banging on the pulpit, testifying to the faithful on a humid 110-degree sunday night, more than willing to literally beat the devil out of you if that's what it takes. I dug his style, and his playing was pretty great too.
All in all, fun times. And I ran into Eidan and she bought me a beer and I was home before midnight.
posted by Peter Sohriakoff | 8:58 PM
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