Cat Power

I had heard that Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power, is a notoriously stage-frightened and tortured performer, so when a back-up singer of the Memphis Rhythm Band announced, “Ladies & Gentlemen, Cat Powerrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!” I expected a reluctant and sheepish girl to come cowering to the microphone, fumbling with her hands, bangs over her face, head pointed downward.
Boy, had my informants misled me. [Really, they hadn’t. I have discovered that Cat Power is just recently sober and has taken on a new, happy and lively stage persona.] The girl got down. She danced. She laughed. She hugged and kissed her bandmates. She waved giddily at fans. She pantomimed every lyric. For most of the show, she was downright goofy.
The show kicked off with “The Greatest,” the title track off of her latest album, on which she teamed up with several rhythm and blues bastions to give her sultry and solemn songwriting a bed of lush violins, percussion, bass, organ and horns. Cigarette in hand, and taking drags between verses, Marshall let flow her strikingly smoky vocals effortlessly. During the instrumental segments, she took the opportunity to loosen up her melancholy lyrics with a chicken dance across the stage.
Crowd enthralled, Marshall and the band glided beautifully through most of The Greatest, lush, vibrant and lively throughout. Marshall remained center-stage, back-lit with red bulbs, incessantly waving her arms, swinging her hips and strutting around on stage.