The last time I saw Cat Power was in this room in 2008, when it was still Colston Hall. Eighteen
years on, hearing her open with ‘The Greatest’ was a good reason to be back, even if the first
few songs were hard to settle into.
Cat kept calling over to the sound desk through the first four or five numbers and looked
increasingly frustrated. It broke up the flow of the opening set, which leaned heavily on The
Greatest. Once the sound was sorted, things looked far more comfortable. By the time she got
to ‘The Moon’, I’d stopped thinking about the sound desk and remembered how little she needs
to do to hold your attention.
The covers were my favourite part of the second half. ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ suited her voice,
but the real surprise was hearing her go from Kitty Wells’ ‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk
Angels’ straight into ‘Manhattan’. It was an odd pairing on paper, and it worked. I’d happily have
heard a bit more of that side of the set.
She finished with ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’, a simple choice that felt right for the evening. It had been
a slightly uneven show, but I was glad I’d gone back. The quieter songs were the ones I took
home with me.
