Cat Power Setlist

— The Greatest —

The Greatest
Living Proof
Lived in Bars
Could We
Empty Shell
Willie
Where Is My Love
The Moon
Islands
After It All
Hate
Love and Communication
— And More —
I Don’t Blame You
Nothing Compares 2 U (Prince cover)
Try Me (James Brown & The Famous Flames cover)
Good Woman
It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels (Kitty Wells cover)
Manhattan
I’ll Be Seeing You (Sammy Fain cover)

Tour Dates

02/27 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
02/28 – Detroit, MI – Saint Andrew’s Hall
03/01 – Toronto, ON – History
03/03 – Kingston, NY – Ulster Performing Arts Center
03/04 – Boston, MA – Roadrunner
03/06 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
03/07 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
03/08 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
03/10 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
03/12 – Atlanta, GA – The Eastern
03/13 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
03/14 – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl Nashville
10/07 – Helsinki, Finland – House of Culture
10/09 – Johanneshov, Sweden – Fållan
10/10 – Oslo, Norway – Sentrum Scene
10/11 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Vega
10/12 – Hamburg, Germany – Docks
10/14 – Warsaw, Poland – Stodola
10/15 – Berlin, Germany – Huxleys Neue Welt
10/17 – Cologne, Germany – Live Music Hall
10/19 – Vienna, Austria – Wiener Konzerthaus
10/20 – Munich, Germany – Muffathalle
10/21 – Strasbourg, France – La Laiterie
10/23 – Lausanne, Switzerland – Les Docks
10/24 – Lyon, France – Le Radiant
10/25 – Ramonville-Saint-Agne, France – Le Bikini
10/26 – Rennes, France – Le MeM
10/28 – Antwerp, Belgium – De Roma
10/29 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso
10/30 – Luxembourg, Luxembourg – Philharmonie Luxembourg
10/31 – Paris, France – Salle Pleyel
11/02 – Bristol, UK – Bristol Beacon
11/03 – London, UK – Roundhouse
11/04 – Manchester, UK – Albert Hall
11/05 – Glasgow, UK – Barrowland
11/07 – Dublin, Ireland – Vicar Street
11/09 – Paris, France – Salle Pleyel
11/10 – Rouen, France – Le 106

It’s probably always been so, but it feels like these last few years has had an uptick of artist tours celebrating anniversaries of key albums. It’s been pretty fantastic, and over at First Avenue, it was an evening with Cat Power, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of The Greatest, an album that very much lives up to its name.

Cat Power, stage name for Charlyn “Chan”Marshall, has a long career that has spanned nearly every nook and cranny of indie rock, with albums that have blues, punk, soul and even electronic influences. She’s ever evolving while still being a recognizable vocal and musical sound, which is an impressive balance. 2006’s The Greatest was her seventh album and was an extremely well received one. Given the Memphis session band she had backing the original album, I was curious to see how that would be recreated here. It was a little disappointing (and the crowd was definitely growing restless) that the band did not get going for over 30 minutes from their listed start time, particularly as it wasn’t the weekend. But once they made stage, we got some scattered applause and then the crowd quickly locked in. Cat Power appeared with a full band (a sextet: vocals, guitar, guitar, stand up & electric bass, keyboards, and drums). The tile track was the first number and a sense of calm rolled out like a wave from the band. Some kind and supportive words to the crowd about Minnesota’s ongoing peaceful defiance to federal agents was the first of fairly limited talking from Cat Power across the evening.

(Side note: Cat Power requests no photos from reviewers, which we were happy to respect, so photos below are crowd shots before and during the show.)

Lived in Bars had a nice keyboard intro and let Cat Power’s vocals really sit at center stage, cradled in the music, even as the tempo sped up in the latter half. The lighting scheme was set to “dimly lit bar”, which was a bit boring, but did focus the attention on the music. A weird exchange about waiting for an iced coffee was closed out (pretty sure there were four different drinks on the stool next to Cat Power!), and after a drink, it was the most country sounding number of Empty Shell, and the range of sound across this album was highlighted. Willie had an opening musical intro that simply screamed “this is a Cat Power song” in the best possible way, and that mix of her vocals with that particular Cat Power backing music was the reason so many people had come to First Avenue for this show. Where Is My Love got the biggest cheers of the night and it felt like Cat Power had really hit top gear. Dear reader, when I say that backing band was tight, I am not even remotely doing them justice. It was critical to the success of the evening and kudos to Cat Power for assembling this powerhouse group.

After It All was a bluesy rock number that had a driving bass riff underpinning the vocals. Love and Communication was the end of the album and that rock intro from the band was the perfect set up for those lower, almost guttural vocals. Stepping off stage and leaving the band to play some standing music (the interlude felt vastly overlong), but Cat Power eventually returned to play some more songs, starting with I Don’t Blame You, riding right off that ongoing music. A cover of a Prince song was a live debut (only recorded once), and Nothing Compare 2 You had a distinct sound even as it hewed close to the original in spirit, if not anywhere near that version’s wide vocal range. Good Woman was a perfectly fit song for this late in the set and the crowd was appreciative and excited for it. Pretty quickly, it was the last song and a cover of I’ll Be Seeing You had that deep vocals again and was a solid close to the evening.