10/17/03 - Philadelphia, PA, Trocadero Theater

10/17/03 - Philadelphia, PA, Trocadero Theater

Incomplete setlist:

Names
I Dont Blame You
Satisfaction
These Arms Of Mine
Blue Moon Of Kentucky - Fuck Tha Police - Fuck The Pain Away Medley
Angie

This concert was among a handful of performances Chan gave in October. Denison Witmer opened. Prior to this show, she performed at Joe's Pub on the 13th and Tonic on the 14th, both in NYC.

Short Comment

Chan Marshall went to eat at Mori Moto’s prior to her Cat Power set on Friday in Philadelphia. Mori Moto was one of the Iron Chefs and his restaurant is one of the chic-est in the city.

Concert Review

If you wanted to hear Chan Marshall wrap her husky voice around "He War" and "Nude as the News," the Troc was not the place to be last Friday. But if you'd come to see a train wreck, the notoriously unbalanced indie diva didn't disappoint. She was punchy from the get-go, seeking permission to get wasted (a little belatedly, perhaps), yelling "Douche!" at random intervals, demanding excessive reverb and adding incongruous touches. "Names," the heaviest song on Cat Power's recent You Are Free, was almost unbearably moving -- until Marshall tacked on a happy piano flourish.

Alone on stage, without the backing band she's been using of late, she joked about her audiences abandoning her. If she wanted to alienate the crowd, taking a half-dozen stabs at "I Don't Blame You" was a good start. She made several valiant attempts at playing it on piano before making it work on guitar. If nothing else could be perfect, she wanted this much to be clear: "The last time I saw you/ You were on stage," she sang, again and again. "Your hair was wild/ Your eyes were bright/ And you were in a rage." She wouldn't let it go until it was flawless. And finally, it was.

Once she decided to sing Otis Redding's "These Arms of Mine," it didn't matter that she was too messed up to play. The set turned into Cat Power karaoke when a volunteer climbed down from the balcony to play guitar for the rest of the show while Marshall crouched and sang behind the piano. Unsure and faltering at first, "Melissa" may have gone through every tune in her repertoire, her confidence growing along with her grin. She and Marshall awkwardly conferred between songs, which included a medley of "Blue Moon of Kentucky," "Fuck tha Police," "Fuck the Pain Away" and a Spanish ballad. With Melissa's encouragement, Marshall sang her second Rolling Stones cover of the night -- a sad "Satisfaction" was the first -- giving "Angie" an unwanted sex change. (Marshall's voice never lost its beauty, but it's hard to make "Angelo" sound sexy.)

Exhausted, the two women shared a tender hug, took a bow and hid behind the piano. Two hours after Marshall took the stage, she refused to cede it, holding her ground long after the house lights came up. The road crew packed it up before Cat Power packed it in. The spectacle was rough to watch, and not everyone stayed. But those who did couldn't look away.