Liars and Cat Power at MSG. Huh?
Let Liars freak out. Its what they do best, and yet the cavernous space of Madison Square Garden Friday night wouldnt let them. Their sound shrunk significantly after the defection of the rhythm section; this was the first time Ive seen them since. They seemed overwhelmed. Just as they were thumb-sized from my vantage pointdecent seats notwithstandingand there was no way of being absolutely certain it was really them, I think they were disconcerted by the fact that they couldnt be sure if they were getting the point across. If only Liars knew how weird-in-a-good-way it was to stand in line for a cheese dog to the virulent strains of Lets Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack. The crowd on the floor, bigger than any they ever played at Mercury Lounge, was listless, a little bored. The outré garage rock of their new, self-titled album, went across much better than the tribal freak-out of their last album, Drums Not Dead, which was, to my ear, a better and more confident record, although to most listeners, far less immediate. Cat Power, by contrast, rose to the daunting challenge of playing the citys biggest venue. Shy girl Chan Marshall, once infamous for withering before crowds, is now the indie-rock Christina Aguilera. Shes been reportedly clean and sober for a while now, and it showed. Backed by the Dirty Delta Blues Bandwith Jim White of the Dirty 3 on sticks and Judah Bower on stringsshe played like a bona fide blue-eyed soul sistah, and it probably would have bombed if she had never seen the kind of dark shit we know she has. She even pulled off an impressionistic cover of New York, New York that sounded almost nothing like the originaland thus was awesome. This was the Cat Power show for people who hate shy, introspective indie songstresses like Cat Power. Meanwhile, the Cat Power cult was vindicated, as she has become the performer capable of matching the startling urgency of her best records. Afterwards, I am told, Interpol played.
Photo courtesy of [Duluoz Cats on Flickr]