“It’s not like I’m playing London or anything” – Chan Marshall aka Cat Power

Her voice is like a wild cat that has just had hot treacle poured down its throat crossed with a neurotic dusky blues singer of the mid 1930s. That is about the best description I can come up with. But it isn’t just the voice, Chan Marshall’s melodies are just so .. well .. “hauntingly beautiful”. So whacking her in front of a 12 piece rhythm band was, in my mind, a little odd. However it soon became clear that the band was just there to sing. The were there to provide a sort of onstage emotion support for Chan. Just as, as it turns out, we were. During the set on countless occasions Chan broke down mid song to move a microphone, take of her jumper, complain that the lights were in her eyes and exclaim that she has just wanted the gig to be really good and that New York would never have been as nice to her. The audience would call out, “No no it is beautiful!!” and “Keep going!”

So why was this one of the best gigs I have ever seen? Cause Chan is truly brilliant. Normally a song break down the melody would slip, but she just would wander back into the song without missing a beat. You get the feeling that she exhales in little melodies while she sleeps.

When I left I was chatting to a couple who said they had seen her play about 8 times, “Oh she is much more confident than she used to be! It is just so lovely to see her grow like this.”

I have never seen anything like it. She came on to three encores and couldn’t stop waiving to us as she bowed out. One of the other band mates came on stage to get her of and she kept hiding behind the piano.