1/23/14 – Sydney Australia, Enmore Theatre, "Big Star's 'Third' Tribute Concert"

1/23/14 – Sydney Australia, Enmore Theatre, "Big Star's 'Third' Tribute Concert"

Setlist (Chan's songs only):
Nighttime
Femme Fatale
Holocaust - Duet with Kim Salmon.

This is the first performance of the year. The year begins with a mostly (completely?) sold-out tour of Australia and New Zealand, including appearances at "Sydney Festival'' and "Laneway Festival". This concert is part of the "Sydney Festival" and is a tribute to Big Star's influential album, 'Third'. Chan has previously covered "Nighttime" from this album on her "Speaking For Trees" DVD as well as live performances. Its usually combined with "Back Of Your Head", when played live. 



http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2014/Music/Big-Stars-Third/

An all-star cast gather to perform one of the most iconic albums ever made, Big Star's third album, Sister Lovers. Big Star's imperfect masterpiece is performed with its original string and wind orchestrations by Jody Stephens (Big Star), Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Ken Stringfellow (The Posies), Mitch Easter (Let's Active) and Chris Stamey (the dB's). For this orchestrated live performance, the core band is joined by internationals guest vocalists Cat Power, Kurt Vile, Edwyn Collins, Skylar Gudasz and Brett Harris and local legends Tim Rogers (You Am I), Kim Salmon (The Scientists) and Dave Faulkner (Hoodoo Gurus) - and backed by a 12-piece local ensemble of strings and brass.


Considered a cult classic, Sister Lovers is adored by critics and artists alike, with The Replacements, Belle & Sebastian and The Flaming Lips all citing Big Star as an influence and R.E.M.’s Peter Buck describing the album as “a Rosetta Stone for a whole generation”. Released in 1978, the legendary record was primarily the studio output of founding members Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens.

by Leah Flanagan

Snippet of ''Femme Fatale'' by Velvet Underground.... Cool!

http://statigr.am/p/639813856141341634_186777907

Review
http://musicfeeds.com.au/gig/big-stars-third-enmore-theatre-sydney-230114/

....This was followed by Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, singing the Velvet Underground’s Femme Fatale with her special knack of not only bringing a sincerity to the songs she covers, but making each one sound like she had written it herself. Things were warming up.

 ....Chan made no attempt at pretending to join in, instead taking it upon herself to throw the roses, wave the waves and signal that, yes, Big Star’s Third had been played.

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Review
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/northern-beaches/sydney-festival-review-big-stars-third-show-at-the-enmore-proves-just-as-sprawling-as-the-album/story-fngr8hax-1226809733744?from=newslocal_rss

R.E.M.'s Mike Mills provided some key contributions on some of the songs and US indie musicians Cat Power (aka Charlyn Marie Marshall) and Brett Harris both shone vocally.

Review
http://oceansneverlisten.blogspot.com/2014/01/big-stars-third-enmore-theatre.html

The great Chan Marshall (Cat Power) was sublime with "Nighttime" and "Femme Fatale". She is definitely though still a strange presence on stage with her awkward mannerisms. But oh that voice.


SETLIST
Nature Boy
Kizza Me
O, Dana
For You
Nighttime
Jesus Christ
Big Black Car
Stroke It Noel
Blue Moon
Femme Fatale
Downs
Dream Lover
Holocaust
You Can't Have Me
Kangaroo
Thank You Friends

Feel
Daisy Glaze
Thirteen
I'm With Love With A Girl
You And Your Sister
February's Quiet
Back Of A Car
In The Street
There Was A Light
Way Out West
Morpha Too
Give Me Another Chance
I Am The Cosmos
Till The End of the Day
September Gurls
The Letter

When My Baby's Beside Me

Review
http://addictedtonoise.com.au/big-stars-third-live/

...Chan Marshall sang ‘Nightime’ and then ‘Holocaust’ with Kim Salmon.

Review
http://thebrag.com/music/big-stars-third-enmore-theatre

The only missteps in the show are minor, like Power going missing during a duet with Salmon...

Review and Picture
https://theconversation.com/big-stars-third-and-the-classic-album-show-21883



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Comments from Ken Stringfellow (I edited this to just the Chan comments but the whole thing is an interesting read)
http://kenstringfellow.com/2014/01/australia-part-one/

1/22/14 - Concert Rehearsals

Today my role was dual — as a major musical component of the Big Star Third show, I sing several of the songs, either lead of harmony, play bass on much of the material, guitar on some, keyboards on some; that would be a big job, but it also happens that I tour manage the whole affair–that is, I am the organizational liaison between the band and the promoter/venue — I coordinate all aspects of the production, the finances, travel/local transport…a huge job in itself. 

So, the job today was to get the backline set up, and start rehearsing, esp with the string/horn ensemble, Chris Stamey, and our conductor, Roland, to make sure all the parts they have were correct and being read correctly. Our other guest singers who came for rehearsal (some had commitments that only allowed them to come for the show day run thru) were:

Cat Power. Chan is someone whose emotions are laid out, plain to see. It makes her a compelling performer, and I guess she could have negative emotions too as part of that palette but in the time we spent together, she was so lovely. To me, she’s all right brain — everything is an analog curve. I have that too, but I also have a left brain that’s firing equally at all times — this is rare, most people are favor one or the other–you have your analytical, spatial relations types; you have your intuitive, emotional types. My organizational hemisphere allows me to be a highly competent tour manager; my intuitive, emotional side is available to me when I step up to the mic. I can bounce from one to the other instantaneously; that’s why I’m so driven, I feel that this right-left integration is a real gift and I should use this minor superpower for as much good as I can achieve. But, the intuitive side of me, the emotional, non linear side, has fantasies of taking over, this is swimming in the deep waters, unable to see the bottom, and this is where Chan lives. She is deep, and she is untethered, in a beautiful way. For one thing, when she arrived she met me and went into a monologue, perhaps 3 minutes of stream of consciousness free association, which I was happy to turn in to a dialogue; I love free association and to jam like that with a clever mind is fun for me. What she was trying to tell me is that she wasn’t confident that she could pull of both songs we’d discussed her singing in the show; she felt “Nighttime” was doable, but she hadn’t really gotten into the Big Star version of “Femme Fatale”, she knew the original but felt unsure, what if Big Star’s version was really different, she just didn’t want to mess it up. She also gave caveats that she might be too nervous to sing at rehearsal, that she really could only bring the full weight of her delivery to bear when the stakes were high, as in the real show. All fine with me.

Meanwhile, I had to keep the rehearsal running, and participate in the music, and attend to details. Everyone knew their stuff. Our other guests, Kurt Vile and Kim Salmon, couldn’t come til the day of the show, so people stood in for them in rehearsal. Chan did Nighttime–perfectly, I might add, she didn’t seem to hold back at all, I think it was just important for her to feel that she no obligation or pressure. She opted out of Femme Fatale. I thought she’d go back to the hotel, but one other lovely quality she has is she, while claiming to be very shy, was just as sociable a person as you’ll ever meet–she talked to everybody– musician, crew– and stayed for the whole rehearsal, plopped out on the horrifically filthy carpet of the Enmore’s main floor (what is the Commonwealth obsession with carpeting places that should never be carpeted?) like she was at the beach, with a glass of wine, happy as a clam.

In conclusion, I think Chan’s empathic and mimetic qualities, and the availability of her feelings, make it very easy to feel like you’ve bonded, and, in fact, I think we did — I think that is how every day of her life must be, her vagabonding about and always in good company, maybe someone she met that day, maybe old friends, who knows. We did spend some time talking both days, and our conversations on email/sms about the show would segue into non sequitur, all delightful.

So, we wrapped the rehearsal, and I got everyone loaded onto a bus or into Craig’s van. A bunch of us, and some of my local friends, had drinks at the Sandy Pines, a hipster bar with animal heads on the wall.

SYDNEY, 1/23

I commanded an orderly soundcheck, making sure everything was actually where the sound engineer thought it should be. And we were able to do a dress rehearsal, not quite in order, but we got all the people in the mix — now, Kim Salmon, with his wild hair and natty suit, arrived; and Kurt Vile, always calm and cool, joined us after his own soundcheck. In the end, Chan felt up for Femme Fatale. We were of course soundchecking right up til doors. Then, food came in to the backstage, and we carb’ed up for the gig. So to speak.

The house lights went down. The venue was freaking packed. The conductor gave the downbeat, and a short orchestral prelude led to me opening the show...

And then, Chan, “Nighttime”. I could just watch from the wings, her performance in the moment, however she wants to claim being unsure, or insecure, or unprepared…wow, she could sing the phone book, really. Any liberties she took with the melody were fully in the spirit of the music, it was a performance of subtlety, care, and fully captured the come-down, pathos-meets-paranoia-looking-for-safety mood of the original. 10/10.

Chan sang “Femme Fatale”, again with wonderful, little, soulful twists of the melody, I thought of Dusty Springfield, maybe. 

Kim came back for “Holocaust”, I, at this point, was pretty spent–Dream Lover is a seriously challenging piece for me…I have to sing way above Skylar. So, unfortunately, I didn’t get to see Kim do this song. I came back onstage to play synth bass on “You Can’t Have Me”, which was sung by Mike & Skylar as a kind of duet–more of a simultaneous thing than a back-and-forth. Then, what I think is a highlight of the show, the centerpiece, more or less, is the epic version of “Kanga Roo”, which is masterfully sung by Brett Harris. I play Mellotron on this. Finally, we do “Thank You, Friends” which has all the guests, plus Skylar, myself, Brett, singing. Chan fled from the stage as the song started, realizing she really didn’t know what line to do; Skylar covered her seamlessly.

I did bass and BVs on “There Was A Light” where Brett sang lead. That song is noodly to begin with, and I admit I was feeling pretty confident, so I took some melodic runs, all good, then walked off stage to find Chan giving me shit–’hey mr boodlybooddlyboodly”. Well, she wasn’t wrong.