Neko Case at Village Underground

 
Neko Case
Lady Lamb The Beekeeper
Village Underground, 24 May 2013

"Filming is the new remembering," Neko Case wisely tells the audience while her backing singer and partner in crime, Kelly Hogan, amusingly drives the point home by chanting "It's called remembering!" beside her. I am a little bit of a hypocrite here because I love including YouTube clips with my posts and I have been know to take a terrible phone photo at concerts, but I must admit this craze of watching concerts through phones has been getting to me too although my irritation has never been expressed as amusingly as the banter between Case and Hogan.
We are there for the sublime music, Neko's own unique brand of country noir, sung in her inimitable clear, strong voice but the wisecracks between songs are definitely an added bonus and run the gamut from menopause to the return of Neko's "bikini body". Case's backing band, a group of grizzled-looking, heavily bearded country dudes, seem oblivious to all the talk of where to catch menopause (Hogan is going through it and Case wants it) but they must be used to this terrible twosome by now and there's no doubt Case and Hogan make a powerful pair, musically and otherwise.

Neko tonight looks wild but beautiful, her famous red hair big and tousled, like she has just got out of bed, making her look strangely glamorous despite wearing no make up and a casual outfit of jeans and black hoodie. Hogan in contrast is in a smart three-piece suit and short hair but as ever their voices meld together perfectly on old Neko favourites like That Teenage Feeling, Star Witness and This Tornado Loves You. Neko is in the midst of finishing off her sixth studio album and only over in Europe to do some festival shows so rather nicely in between the older songs and tunes from her most recent album Middle Cyclone (I say most recent but it's actually been four years since it came out), she debuts quite a few new numbers.
The first of the new songs, Bracing For Sunday, is a dark but driving number, a murder tale about a wild "Friday night girl" causing trouble in a small town - classic Case in fact. There's another called Calling Cards, a fond remembrance of old friends and long lost bandmates. But the most stunning of the new songs for me was one I think was called Night Still Comes, which came at the end of the main set and builds to some belting moments from Neko, as she sings "You never held it at the right angle" sounding like a more fierce, modern day Patsy Cline. Hearing new songs in concert can sometimes be a baffling or underwhelming experience but this time all four or five numbers fit in perfectly and were exciting to hear: it's pretty clear that the new album is going to be pretty magnificent and well worth the wait.

Elsewhere it was lovely to hear Nothing To Remember, Neko's wonderful contribution to The Hunger Games soundtrack and also probably my favourite Neko track of all-time, a tune she says was the first she ever wrote all by herself, the rather fittingly titled Favorite, a song that makes full use of Case's rich and seductive voice. There's no doubt there's no one who sounds quite like her. Ending with a high-spirited Train From Kansas City, the Shangri-Las song Neko effectively turned into a rockabilly number on her live album The Tigers Have Spoken and a haunting version of Sook-Yin Lee's Knock Loud, even after a 24 song set I was aching for more. I can't wait until she returns in support of the new album in the autumn.

Supporting Neko tonight was a girl with an equally impressive set of pipes, Aly Spaltro, who goes under the name Lady Lamb The Beekeeper. She tells us that years ago she got refused entry to a Neko Case show for being too young and then drove five hours to see her. You can definitely feel her excitement and nervousness at playing with one of her idols and it immediately endears to her the audience. Appearance-wise she looks younger than her 23 years, reminding me a little of Juno (as in the film) but her voice was other-worldly. Starting off with a long a cappella number, she pretty much silences the crowded, chattering room. She then begins strumming her guitar, attacking it as she croons over angular riffs. Some of the songs sound like they deserve more dressing, and I'm sure on record they have the band and production they deserve, but even in this stripped down form they sound mighty impressive and Spaltro's gossip-tinged voice is wonderful thing to hear. I'm definitely keen to hear more from this new, unique singer-songwriter, who certainly deserves the opening spot to Neko and I'm sure with soon be headlining her own shows here.