Cat Power @ Granada Theatre Dallas
It’s been a quiet week in Dallas, but I knew I had to save my enthusiasm for tonight’s show at the Granada. How can you resist Ms. Chan Marshall (better known as Cat Power) with her Dirty Delta Blues Band? Um, you can’t.
I got there a little before they opened the doors (had to stop at Good Records first and was very happy with what I picked up.) Once I was in and grabbed some pizza, a Shiner and some h20, I headed to my normal perch in the balcony behind the sound booth. Chatted up the house photographer and sound guy, as usual. Around 9, the opener, Micah Hinson came on. He’s a native of Abilene, TX and you could tell. He wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t good either. Maybe just not my speed. I only dug moments where he was channelling his inner Neil Diamond.
So around 10.30, the band comes out with Chan following in her skinny jeans, white shoes and a grey (?) top that was straight out of flashdance along with fingerless black gloves. Everyone was excited as they started off with “The Greatest”. Her voice sounded great and the song sounded awesome with a full band behind her. (If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know the only other time I ever saw her was at Brick by Brick, when she did a solo acoustic show.) She still had her issues with the spotlight on the stage. As a matter of fact, one of her people kept coming up to the sound booth to harass the guy that was in charge of lighting. I guess he finally got it right about halfway through the set. Chan meandered across the stage during the songs, never really wanting to stand in the center and sing. She kinda bent down holding onto the mike stand for a good amount of time. Or she would break out some cute dance moves that everyone would applaud her for trying. I think she finally started to enjoy herself around “Could We” when she introduced the band (and smoked a cigarette). I have to say that I was digging on her piano/keyboard player, Gregg. He kinda looked like Steve Perry (yes, of Journey) and was smoking all night. After “Satisfaction” (a crowd favorite, to be sure), I figured they’d leave for the encore, but they just kept playing. After the last song, Chan let everyone know they were taking a break and they were going to re-do some songs because they were recording the show and they didn’t like how a couple of them turned out. Gotta love the perfectionist in her.
Yes, yes, I got the set list. Here it is in all its glory.
