4/28/05 - London, England, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Center

4/28/05 - London, England, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Center

Setlist:
1. Hate - 2:33
2. Empty Shell - 3:34
3. Lived In Bars - 3:51
4. Living Proof - 3:46
5. The Moon - 3:56
6. Could We - 2:20
7. Hey Porter - 1:28
8. Good Woman - 3:48
9. Remember Me - 3:29
10. The Greatest - 3:57
11. Where Is My Love - 0:35
12. Norma Jean - 1:00
13. Names - 2:22
14. Norma Jean - 0:57
15. He's A Mighty Good Leader - 3:10
16. Where Is My Love - 0:35
17. From Fur City - 4:17
18. Islands - 1:25
19. Wolf Among Wolves - 4:19
20. Why - 3:13
21. Colors And The Kids - 3:53
22. Who Knows Where The Time Goes - 1:22
23. When I Lay Me Down - 3:16
24. Try Me - I've Been Loving You Too Long - These Arms Of Mine - Ruin Medley - 3:47
25. Love And Communication - 4:38
26. I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart - 1:25
27. Willie - 6:32
28. In This Hole - 4:46
29. Satisfaction - 2:35
30. Hate - 1:56
Total Time - 1:28:35

Video Setlist (youtube):
Living Proof - 0:19
Names - 0:29
From Fur City - 0:39
Satisfaction - 2:11
Hate - 1:57
Total Time - 5:35

This was the fourth date of the six date European tour. Warren Ellis opened. A few short video clips were taken, shown below. Thanks to the fans. "From Fur City" seems like it was a rarity at this point. All of the live versions I have are from 1999 and 2002.

A recording was made of this concert. Thank you to the person who recorded this and to desperateK for sharing this. My copy is a stereo mp3. I have split the tracks and my timing is reflected above. The quality is excellent for an audience recording with Chan's trademark reverb sound intact and sounding great, never too over-present. Except for the very loudest parts (which there very few) there is no distortion. The audience is virtually non-existant during songs, which makes this a great concert to listen to. Her playing here is superlative. All around, highly recommended. She never once addresses any sound issues. She also sings 11 of the 12 tracks that appear on "The Greatest".

Hate - Chan opens the concert with this song on guitar. It sounds more focused than its appearence at 4/21/05. Chan goes directly into the next song.

Empty Shell - A great take. Also on guitar. The audience applauds.

Lived In Bars - Now on piano, this is an early version. Taken at a leisurely pace, this sounds great. For sure one of the best solo piano takes on the song. She especially sounds great on the ending. She effortlessly moves into the next song without a pause.

Living Proof - Again this is an early version of this song and it also sounds great. Again the audience applauds. "Sorry my breath is really bad, I havent brushed my breath, brushed my teeth this evening," Chan says at the end.

Living Proof:


The Moon - Now on guitar. A beautiful take. She goes right into the next song.

Could We - Another song sounding great. She goes directly into the next song, again with no time for applause.

Hey Porter - A very early version of this cover. She only does about a minute and a half of this before going straight into the next song, again with no applause. She it totally winning the music vs. applause battle tonight and will continue to for the rest of the concert. She must have been so proud.

Good Woman - A standard setlist song from 1999 to 2006. This is a great version. Large applause at the end. "Cheers", Chan says at the end.

Remember Me - She approaches this song from an odd angle. Using a lot of the higher keys on the piano at first. Still, this is always a highlight for me on any of these recordings. Doesnt really matter how she does it, its always incredible. She goes right into the next song with no applause.

The Greatest - In the setlist for nearly a year, she has mastered her performance on this song, as this rendition shows.

Where Is My Love - Again with no time for applause, Chan begins this song. Like her concert in Malm, a week before, she again does not sing any lyrics and ends this after 35 seconds.

Norma Jean - Again, no time for applause, as she goes straight into this song. She sings the lyrics here. Like so many other versions of this song, it lasts about a minute and serves as an intro to "Names". Again, no applause as she goes right into the next song.

Names - She sings most of this before going into the next song.

Names:


Norma Jean - Here reprises this short song and goes directly into the next song. Again, no applause.

He's A Mighty Good Leader - This Beck cover was also played at 4/21/05. She goes right into the next song.

Where Is My Love - She only plays a bar of this which acts as a sort of ending for the early piano section of the concert. "Thanks!", Chan whispers at the end.

From Fur City - Back on guitar, Chan sings an excellent version of this cover. She probably didnt perform it much after this year.

From Fur City:


Islands - Without any applause she goes straight into this song.

Wolf Among Wolves - Again, straight into this song. An excellent take. Suprisingly, at the very end she goes into to some chords that sound exactly like her version of "The Ocean" by Velvet Underground and also her later version from 2010 of "Sun". Perhaps, even this early on she was thinking about the song "Sun". The audience applauds.

Why - She moves back to the piano. She has been playing this song for over two years, at this point. With no applause she moves into the next song.

Colors And The Kids - A very welcome version of this song. Always fun and some beautiful singing with Chan going for some of those high notes. A highlight. Applause at the end as she goes into the next song.

Who Knows Where The Times Goes - This is now the earliest version of this song in my collection. She does a little over a minute of this before going straight into the next song.

When I Lay Me Down - I loved the 6/19/03 version of this song, but I now feel this version is every bit as good. This song was not in the setlist long after this. She ends the song with what seems to be her rendition of the "Pink Panther Theme", after which the audience applauds.

Try Me - I've Been Loving You Too Long - These Arms Of Mine - Ruin Medley - Still on piano, Chan sings a verse of "Try Me", then sings a verse of "I've Been Loving You Too Long". This is followed by verses of "These Arms Of Mine". "I could play that for hours", Chan says. "Remember Me, Try Me, I've Been Loving You, These Arms Of Mine", Chan sings over the same chord. "Its kind of a joke....," Chan says, "So I could do that for another hour." Incredibly, she then begins singing "Sittin On A Ruin", to the same melody as the R&B songs she has been playing in this medley. She had introduced this concept over a year ago. "Thats another joke," Chan says. Not much of a song altogether, but this is also a highlight.

Love And Communication - This is another one of the early versions of the song before it was recorded in June 2005 for the album, "The Greatest". The chords are very different, though she seems more certain of them here than in previous live versions. "This is the break," Chan says as she plays her familiar "blues lick" on guitar.

I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart - "I wish nobody knew this song, so, I wish nobody knew this song", Chan says. She only sings 2 or 3 verses of this before ending it. About a minute long.

Willie - Chan is now back on piano. Chan had been playing this song for about 2 years now. She goes right into the next song. No applause.

In This Hole - Probably one of the last times she played this live. A highlight. Applause at the end.

Satisfaction - Chan is now back on guitar for this song.

Hate - Immediately following "Satisfaction", Chan goes into this song, the same song she started the concert with. This lasts a few verses before she ends the concert.

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Like Blondie, Cat Power is a group, but one principally the work of Chan Marshall. Armed only with a battered-looking Steinway and a lone guitar, it is Chan Marshall alone that brushes the hair from her eyes, steadies her eggshell voice, and taps into a cycle of song with few contemporary parallels.

A bold claim, sure, but there are few other performers who can pluck songs from the air as Chan Marshall appears to do. Her face covered by hippy-chick hair, fringe as fussy as Cousin It's, Marshall seems to sniff out melodies out, cajoling sound and melody from the Smithsonian Institute of her mind. Segueing from cover to cover, blending original into original, so much so that the joins are audible only from appreciative but uncertain applause.

It would be inaccurate to call this a performance. A performance might imply rehearsal, pre-decided tempos, a meticulously planned set of new songs mixed with familiar favourites knocked out at judicious moments. Rather this is an unperformance. Chan Marshall renders terms like 'polish' and 'professionalism' redundant, with only a buffer of nervous charm offering any indication that we are not just eavesdropping on a spectacularly-gifted amateur before the main attraction arrives.

A new album is rumoured to be imminent, and many songs are unfamiliar as Marshall switches from guitar to piano and back at will. But in truth, it's difficult to be sure. Devastatingly raw balladry such as Rule The Islands, You and King Rides By begin and end by rote, then reappear to punctuate referential dips into devotional torchery such as Otis Redding's I've Been Loving You Too Long and These Arms Of Mine with James Brown's Try Me. One song reflects another, Marshall's own compositions of a piece with the emotionally devastated subtext with these rhythm and blues of yore.

Like Bob Dylan, Marshall chooses to switch around her arrangements according to mood. Names loses some of its darker lines (which isn't saying much) while her celebrated take on the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction unexpectedly regains its strutting chorus. Good Woman is given a thankfully full reading, a melancholy farewell equal to any of the broken love songs of the Bard of Duluth's pre-electric period.

Incredibly, grim it is not. Hymns for the luckless they may be, but the grapple with her art is nothing less than absorbing. She sings with the innocence of one dazzled by music, by her own abilities, and those of others. She Introduces the White Stripes' I Want To Be The Boy That Warms Your Mother's Heart with a shy "I wish nobody knew this song".

There is no encore, but then I'm not absolutely sure she knew we were there. Drifting at some point between brittle and beautiful, brutal and tranquil, Cat Power is really out on her own.

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It was...quite good!

The support act was Warren Ellis. He provided some of the violin and backing vocals on 'You Are Free' and I think he is also a member of a band called The Dirty Three. He played solo. Just a violin and some computer wizardry. Very impressive stuff. It was like watching a slightly edgy classical recital. I enjoyed it though at times the pieces seemed a bit drawn out.

Chan played a whole set (and a long one at that) with barely any sign of losing it. The only moment was when she lost her cool a little with the three pit photographers (literally leaning on the stage) who had been mercilessly bombarding her with their noisy shutter lenses for almost 15 mins solid. Now, as you know, I like to take a few pics myself (I've even attached a couple to the end of this post) but I felt really sorry for Chan because there she is pouring her soul out to us in what would be hushed reverence and all the time you can just hear this *click* *click* *shuffle* *click* It was really pissing me off too as it was distracting from the music During one of the songs she waved out her hand in a gesture for the photographers to give it a break but they completely ignored her and just carried on snapping I thought this was pretty inconsiderate. Well after a few songs she just said something like "Can you please stop? I can't take that anymore?" and finally they got the message...

I love Chan's voice, I must say that, and she gave a nice performance on both piano and guitar but while this show was far better than when I saw her at Shepherds Bush last year it again felt like there was something missing from making it a great concert. Maybe it's just me but while I enjoy hearing the songs stripped down to just vox & piano/guitar, an entire show performed in this way doesn't really hold my attention that well. I wouldn't say I got bored but at times I wanted to hear something a bit more dynamic that would make me wriggle in my seat a little As good as she is on her own, my personal opinion is that Cat Power gigs would be about 5 times better if she put together a backing band that could create a sound closer to they way the albums have been produced. I think she could still do the lo-fi style for a couple of songs in a set but for me 1 and a half hours of this can become rather flat.

All gripes aside, this was overall a good show in a beautiful venue. The crowd was far more patient and respectful than at the previous gig and I think this really helped Chan relax and enjoy playing to us. She left the stage smiling and blowing kisses to the audience.

Satisfaction - Hate video clip:
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Updated to include a review of the concert recording.