and there was music

AKC and I (ACK!) enjoyed us some Cat Power and The Dirty Delta Blues last night at the clean-bathroomed First Avenue in The Cities. There was Power, and there was Blues. But first, there was the not-so-impressive opening act, Appaloosa, and her "DJ" man-kick hereby named Georg--a waifish eastern European electro-punker. Then there was a long ass wait. During said wait there were cereal commercials from the 50's looped on a gigantic screen. Tricks are for kids, Stop stealing me lucky charms, and so forth. There was wonderful conversation between AKC and ACK (me!) during the wait...and $6 Raspberry Stolies which were mostly ice. There were cold fingers. There was no tip. I love wonderful conversations.

When CP&TDDB took the stage, Chan looked very tall. Until I realized I was just very close. And a little drunk. The band was solid; a lot of high-hat on the kit and a dirty, dirty guitar. Pretty straightforward backing without a lot of interpretation, but every now and again a song would open up (for Chan to take a drink or a drag behind the speaker stage left) for embellishment. Then there was the voice and it was amazing. A voice well worth a $30 ticket and $6 parking fee to hear live. A voice I appreciate more each time I listen to it.

There was poor lighting throughout the show. There was a spotty spotlight. There was inconsistent fade and therefore too much dark stage too often. There was also recognition of this by Ms Marshall and she requested to turn on the "go home" lights and turn off the spotlight for the last two songs. There was finally an opportunity for a shitty picture with my phone:

There were highlights: Song for Bobby. The Greatest. Aretha, Sing One for Me.
There was THE HIGHLIGHT: The best cover I have ever heard of what is arguably the best song ever written by Joni Mitchell: Blue.
There was a little bit of irony because AKC and I (ACK!) discussed Joni Mitchell during our wonderful pre-show conversation out of the context of anything having to do with Cat Power.

By the end of the night, I felt like I had just been through an intense poetry reading. And it wasn't the lyrics, most of which I don't even know. It was that smoky, stretched, confessional voice. There were times the song would open up and I'd get down to the Dirty Delta Blues. And there were moments when the only music I heard was her voice.