Deer Tick and Caitlin Rose at Cargo

Deer Tick
Caitlin Rose
Cargo, 28 September 2010

My second time seeing Caitlin Rose this month was just as delightful and charmingly different. This time she was without a band, just backed up on pedal steel by a chap named Spencer with the very occasional support of Deer Tick’s keyboard player. But really the petite Nashville native doesn’t even need that because she has the songs, the voice and the charisma to carry the show on her own.
And that she does. “How do you like my cravat?” she asks the crowd grinning after she emerges from the wings armed with her big acoustic guitar, which almost dwarves her, referring to the red scarf she’s tied around her neck and tucked into her denim shirt. It’s immediately endearing and friendly and makes it feel like she’s playing for friends rather than a bunch of strangers. They even call out to her when she complains of chewing gum on her guitar (put there drunkenly the night before) confessing that they thought she said “cum on my guitar”, to which she responses with a mock Liz Phair song “there’s cum on my guitar, my name is Liz Phair!” Funnily enough it sounds like the real thing.

Stage banter aside, her short set comprises of some of the best songs from her debut album Own Side Now, such as For The Rabbits and Sinful Wishing Well (as requested by a chap in the crowd) and a few covers, including an absolutely sublime version of the Dillard & Clark song She Darked The Sun (well actually, the Linda Ronstadt version, He Darked The Sun, Rose is a huge fan of Ronstadt) and a fantastic sing-along at the end of There’s An Answer At The End Of This Bottle, which somehow she manages to get the whole crowd singing the call and response parts and the chorus to this old country tune. No mean feat, especially for a support band. In fact when she finally leaves the stage there’s lots of calls for her to return for another number, which unfortunately, due to time constraints, she can’t fulfil. When Deer Tick come out later they tell the crowd that this time next year Caitlin will be playing Wembley Stadium. That may be an exaggeration but I can’t imagine it will be long before she finds a much bigger audience, she’s that good.

Deer Tick themselves are a more strange commodity. Despite having the worst band name in the history of rock music, they are clearly loved by the crowd, there’s a bunch of teenage boys next to me armed with just purchased Deer Tick vinyl, who are besides themselves over seeing them play, but I’m not sure what to make of them. I have to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the band’s debut album War Elephant, with singer John McCauley’s vocals particularly grating to my ears, but they do seem to have improved since then, mixing old fashioned rock n’ roll with country and alternative music. McCauley’s vocals are still an acquired taste but certainly sound distinctive and looks-wise he’s an amusing mixture of Allman Brother-esque rock star and old fashioned indie geek. He’s certainly not shy on stage though, joking that the song guitarist Ian O'Neill had just sang was written “after I accidentally creeped into his bed drunk and touched him inappropriately.” During the third song he then puts down his guitar, takes the mike from the stand and gets into a proper rock star stance, throwing back his head while grabbing the mike lead and leaning in closer to the guitarist, in real Bruce Springsteen mode. This is clearly a band with higher ambitions than tiny indie venues.

I must confess I only stayed for half their show (they went on particularly late, typical of the hippier than thou ethos of the ultra trendy Cargo) but they were definitely rocking the joint as I left. Although they weren’t good enough to entice me to stay, I’m certainly glad I saw them but I’m even more glad I got to see Miss Rose once again. Watch out for her, as Deer Tick themselves warned, she’s going places.