Cat Power played at the Union Chapel in North London last night, I went down to see her.
Sitting waaaay back and up at the top, Paul, Suzanna and me could hardly see the stage as the band had no doubt asked for the lights to be left low.
Now I very much like the music of Cat Power. And most times I go and see a band, I end up liking the band even more, through some kinda live music bonding experience. With this gig however, the Cat Power persona was a little unpleasant and made for one of the weirdest gigs I've ever been too. Along with watching the gig without making out a single face of the band, Cat Powers strange booms and ahhhhs into the microphone kinda spoiled the music for me. It seemed she has a fixation with being on stage and in front of lots of fans (ok, a given for a pop star but...) and she really flirts with it, not in a nice way. She flirts in the way that the most popular girl at school flirts -teasing, playing, loving the attention but also knowing that she ain't going to be giving it away. She was courting the fans / admirers adulation, egging it on, basking in i, driving it. And it was somehow distasteful.
To top it off, it was when, during the last song which had seen her walk out into the crowd and sing the songs from amongst her 'disciples', she returned to the stage. She unclipped her mike and made to leave the stage in that time honored fashion that sees the band remain and continue playing the song. Except dear old Cat Power couldn't leave the straight so easily. She danced and waved her feet at stage side fans, letting them kiss and stroke her feet and she really took as age to leave. I dunno. We were in a church. Maybe it was irony. But she is american...
I mentioned all this to Neil this morning, and he told me that I was growing old. Young people love this kind of attitude, so I'm the old boy.
The other wierd thing was that so many people are in to Cat Power. I never knew she had soooo many fans, and all of them so young and trendy.
Posted by tom at June 21, 2003 11:30 PM