Zoo Animals Show Sounders Spirit
Cranberry Saw Us
Can't Miss It, Weekend Edition: Nov 6-8
Fall Flashback
Symphony of the Superhero
Well, that was weird. We like the Cat Power, don't get us wrong. But, in retrospect, we would have skipped Chan Marshall's set at the Showbox last night. We wish she had. It all started with her complaining about wearing size 26 pants when she's really a 28. "I fucked up," she said, dryly. (We thought that was banter but she kept hitching her pants up all set long, even unzipping them onstage, a move some heartily applauded. She was dressed all in black, it turned out.)
Then she mentioned several times that she felt like throwing up, broke off a song because she was worried about passing out, left the stage hurriedly, reappeared, mimed throwing up, sang two songs, started thumping her chest and making faces, and said she couldn't go on, maybe it was food poisoning.
She's touring with the Memphis Rhythm Band for her album The Greatest, a livelier, more audience-friendly album that resonates more with the drunken, hooting, college-girl set. The Memphis Rhythm Band has a rootsy, bar-band quality (except for their trumpet, who could blow), and their sound didn't exactly support what we're gonna call the Cat Power idiom. Marshall's vocals were buried in the mix, and her taffy-stretched, mournful cadences were stepped up so we could all clap along.
She sang quite a bit of The Greatest, and threw in covers of "House of the Rising Sun," "Satisfaction," and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." (Which is where the show ended.) Her attention was clearly wandering: some songs were delivered so fiercely it scared us, but we also thought we saw her trying to remember words. And then, as Seattlest Audrey mentions in another context, there's the Joe Cocker impression: "While she sang, Chan did a little shadowboxing, jigged, and the chicken dance."
We were thinking about Joe anyway because Marshall is not just a singer, she's an enormously talented interpreter. Sure, it's easy to fall in love with that breathy, strangely full-toned voice, but her slip-n-slide phrasing, her wriggling cadences, demand you pay attention. (The performance anxiety, the OCD-tinged tics, that's not interpretation, we're guessing.) Here's her November 20 concert (sans running commentary on nausea) -- listen for yourself.
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I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Bitch is crazy.
Same thing went down when she played Neumo's a few months back (though the pants thing is a new twist). It crossed the line from quirk to sickness and was pretty unwatchable. I felt bad for her and felt bad for buying a ticket to put her in that position.
Yeah, I found another blogger's commentary on that Neumo's show. Sounds fun. In all seriousness, this isn't just "shyness" we're talking about. It's cruel to put a musician in that position when it's clear they can't handle the tour pressure.
chan has been over for a long long time, but supposedly she was all rehabbed and doped on antipsychotics. i am guessing that didn't work either. she used to be pretty great back in the day, but i think she could really use a couple of years at an ashram listening to the wind. really.
Don't get me wrong, I like her music, I'm not a huge fan but I like some of her music. But she is hands down the worst live artist I have ever seen. I've seen her a few times and 3 out of the 4 times it was the same thing. I am sickened that she sells out large halls across the country and plays festivals just to pull this crap. She should retire from performing live and just release records.
John, you hated her live act and yet you saw her four times?
"She's touring with the Memphis Rhythm Band for her album The Greatest, a livelier, more audience-friendly album that resonates more with the drunken, hooting, college-girl set. The Memphis Rhythm Band has a rootsy, bar-band quality (except for their trumpet, who could blow), and their sound didn't exactly support what we're gonna call the Cat Power idiom."
Well, this paragraphs says it all. I've seen her both solo and with the Memphis Rhythm Band and both times were brilliant. The band were amazing... Maybe if the audience were a bit better and gave her more encouragement?