XX/XX/91 - Atlanta, GA, Clermont Lounge

XX/XX/91 - Atlanta, GA, Clermont Lounge

So the story of Cat Power performances starts here.

Setlist (unknown):
Jam (?) (featuring Glen Thrasher, Mark Moore, Damon Moore, Fletcher Liegerot)

From her Crimewave Interview, 1996? - 

Mark: Is that the only topless bar you've ever played? 

Chan: Um. Well, I used to go there before they had bands. I sort of fell in love with this love with this girl 
just because she was so amazingly beautiful. Very dreamy ocean eyes, the most beautiful blue eyes. I would go 
with this friend of mine, we would go and have drinks and watch her dance. Then I'd tip her fives, and she'd 
come over and talk and we became friends. I used to go there all the time and blah blah blah... I've never been 
in love with a woman but I'm saying that I had a crush on a woman. Anyway, I really like the place a lot, but I 
don't think I'll play any other strip club. 

Mark: Did you set that show up, did you call them and ask them to play? 

Chan: Well, the woman who books shows there is a friend of mine. I've gone to a lot of really great shows there. 
My first show was there in '91 with Magic Bone. It's a place I like. 

Linette: I think it's so different than other strip bars. When I first moved to Atlanta I was shocked that there 
was a strip bar on every corner. There's as many strip bars as there are Waffle Houses. It's so strange. 
The strippers at other places aren't like they are at the Claremont. I like that the women there have bellies, 
they seem a lot more real and genuine. And therefore, I don't object to it as much. I like it, I'm really glad 
that it exists. 

Chan: I am too. I like it too. They're naked women but still... They're harder working in some ways, and 
they're all real. 

Linette: There's something amazing that that area has not become really gentrified. You would think that 
everyone would want to live in the Claremont hotel.

Chan: GG Allin used to live there. 

Mark: When did you start playing guitar? 

Chan: 1991. Since I don't ever get to play it, I don't really know how to play. It's sort of like "the guitar" 
not like a part of me. 

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http://www.dailycandy.com/atlanta/article/164029/Interview-with-Author-Dana-Seith

Dana Seith (from the Clermont Lounge) has a book about the venue. 

Most surprising fact about the Lounge itself?

So many bands got their start there! This didn’t make it into the book, but owner Kathi Martin tells a great story about Cat Power singing her first song ever on that stage and how she seemed like a scared little kitten.


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I Would love to hear this story.

From the 5/2/97 Cool Beans Interview:

When did you start playing guitar? 

I started playing guitar when I was 19. We formed Cat Power when I was 20. 

How did you choose the name Cat Power? 

Well, back when we got our first gig we didn't have a name yet, and I was on a payphone trying to come up with a name and I saw someone wearing a Cat Diesel Power hat and I decided the name of our band is Cat Power. It has nothing to do with kittens or cats. 

From the 4/XX/97 London Interview:

How did Cat Power get started?

Well, when I was 17 I started working at a bar. My good friend gave me my first guitar. I didn't know how to play and he didn't teach me. We just played together- making noise and screaming, no songs. We decided to start a band, it was four guitars and drums. We started playing and it sounded really great. The drummer said he could get us a show I thought he was crazy but I said yes. So, we needed a name. Right at that moment there was a regular who always came into the bar and beg for beer, he was wearing a cat diesel power hat so i said 'what about Cat Power?' We arrived at the show the next night. I was so nervous. I was dying. But, the show had been cancelled and we never played together again. My friend Mark and I played guitar together for a while and we got a show opening for some friends of ours. They were a really cool band. There would be so many people there and I was so scared but I agreed. That was our first ever show. So that's when it all started!

From the 12/XX/97 Gravity Girls Interview:

She details her first ever rock show, in which she sat out the back while her drunken boy friends had a "guitar war".

(unfortunately, I dont see these details in the interview...)

http://web.archive.org/web/20000413012656/http://people.enternet.com.au/~acarew/ggcatpwr.html

Transcribed from the 6/XX/12 Capriccio German TV program which aired 10/4/12. This interview was cut so she probably mentioned more about this show. This is what is in the clip, though.

''... And there were were all these college people standing around and the cops were there. They were saying, ''Illegal, open beer''. And I didnt recognize anybody. 'Cause it was their show. And theres like a mircophone there, you know, and they're all playing. And Glen is at the drums. You know, and Mark and Damon are like having 'guitar war'. And Fletcher is, you know, like beating his guitar into the amp. And, uh, and I was like, 'no fucking way'. So I get, I leave. That was our first show.''