Cat Power at the Union Chapel

Cat Power
Venus And The Moon
Nico Turner

Union Chapel, 11 November 2014

This is the Cat Power show I've been waiting years to see. Just Chan Marshall alone on stage with either her guitar or behind a piano, in the intimate setting of the beautiful Union Chapel. But it almost didn't happen - which, let's be honest, isn't unusual for Chan - as this was supposed to be one of two shows at the venue: the first was cancelled due to Chan having the flu and it wasn't confirmed that this date would go ahead until just a few hours before the show. I'm certainly glad it did as she has never sounded better.

I had heard rumours that Chan was pregnant and when she arrived on stage looking a little plumper than usual and positively glowing, I thought this must be true. It wasn't long before she revealed to us, in her customary candid way, that she was four and a half months along. Of course, we got even more info than just that information. After the round of applause that followed her announcement, she jokily shrugged, "Yes, I've had sex!" and then went on to tell us the father was 19, that the relationship was consumated in a pool when she didn't realise how young he was and that he not long after was "put away" but he's okay now. The only thing is (poor Chan) he's stressing her out because he hasn't been returning her calls. Yep, it was Chan at her old soul-bearing, over-sharing best. Despite all this, she looked absolutely beaming, way happier than I've ever seen her in fact. She may have been sick the day before (and does frequently turn to cough away from her microphone) but she seems in better spirits than ever.

That said, although she was full of talk and lots of quips and funny stories, many tailed off into nothing or didn't make sense or were complete non-sequiturs. It was almost like she was saying everything she was thinking even though it was to "invisible friends" as she called us ("I can't see you right now and I don't really know you but if we talked we might be friends!"). I had heard stories of her being like this years ago but I had assumed it was mostly down to her drink problem. Tonight proved that it's just how Chan's mind works: she has no barriers, she is who she is and has no qualms sharing it all. Of course some of it is good humoured and funny. Like when she pleaded to have someone give her a grand piano like the one she was playing and then made up a song on the spot all about it. There's just something so charming and endearing about her even though she seems so fragile, you just can't help but like her.

And then there was the music although in many ways it followed a similar pattern to her stories: sometimes meandering and sometimes left with no conclusion, trailing off or suddenly becoming another song altogether. At one point she tells her she's been playing a particular song since last year but has recently forgotten how to play it. She then starts to play What The World Needs Now Is Love for maybe half the song before it fell apart altogether. It's both amusing and heart-warming that she warns us that she won't be able to finish the song but gamely attempts it anyway.

The show began with her coming out, guitar already strapped on, looking very much like she did back in the Moon Pix days (her hair is pretty much the same now as it was on that cover). At first she concentrated on playing barely saying a word and running through an assortment of songs unknown to me and older tunes including her infamous cover of the Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. It was when she switched to the piano that she got chatty, admitting that she was stalling because her pregnancy was affecting her brain and making her forget the words! She told us that she was playing a lot of older songs that had never been recorded and most of them sounded great even when she failed to make it to the end or it morphed into something else. She actually seemed most comfortable at the piano and is a pretty good player too. No wonder she so coveted the grand piano she was playing.

Eventually, after exhausting her freeform piano section she returned to the guitar for a few songs at the end. I must admit these were my favourites and it was a real treat to see her play guitar, I wish she always would to be honest. Throughout, it wasn't all unknown material, there were lots of familiar tunes including many I had never heard live before. Because it was such a long and beautifully rambling set it is hard for me to remember them all but it included I Don't Blame You, Colors And The Kids, Fool, The Greatest, Names, Maybe Not and even covers of The Velvet Underground's The Ocean and Marvin Gaye's Can I Get A Witness.
All sounded amazing and her voice, that husky, soulful voice of hers, never sounded better. One thing you can never say about Chan Marshall is that she doesn't feel every word she sings. There's true passion and soul in her that makes it sound like every song is utterly sung from her heart.

At the end she also gave us her striking cover of Michael Hurley's Werewolf (from You Are Free) and best of all an incredible version of No Expectations from her debut album Dear Sir, which was particularly exciting to hear live. She was going to play more, even teasing us by playing a tiny bit of Metal Heart (oh to have heard it!) but she was told she had gone over curfew and had to abandon it, instead throwing white roses out to the audience rather than take her bows and leave. Chan, it seems, didn't want to leave the stage as much as we didn't want her to go. What a special gig this was.

There were two support acts tonight. The first was very reminiscent of Marshall herself, a singer-guitarist called Nico Turner. Her style was very much droning guitar riffs and echoey vocals. Most memorable was a reverb-drenched cover of Jeff Buckley's Nightmares By The Sea and then a very drony, distorted version of Something In The Way by Nirvana that Kurt Cobain probably would have really dug.

After Turner came Venus And The Moon, featuring a male guitarist, two female vocalists and a woman on piano. One of the women looked incredibly familiar to me and then it struck me that it was Rain Phoenix, sister of River and Joaquin. She's a pretty decent singer but there was something lacking in the band for me. Her fellow vocalist looked a little like comedian Sue Perkins of all people (and was wearing possibly the worst pair of trousers I've ever seen) and sounded like a cross between k.d. lang and Margot Timmins of Cowboy Junkies. Their music was very much in that vein too, a sort of noirish gloomy country sound, but not quite as good. I did prefer Rain's songs though, which had a sweet simplicity about them. I can't imagine we'll hear too much more about them though.