Friday, April 21, 2006

Neko Case

Neko Case
Granada Theater
4.17.2006

Neko Case is out of this world.

Or at least she’s far beyond the indie-rock niche that she currently inhabits along with fellow torch-song torchbearers like Feist and Cat Power.

Case sang a mix of older material and tracks from her new album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, all of which were fleshed out by Case’s five-piece band.

“Star Witness,” a song that might be about a car wreck, or a shooting, or both, set the mood for the evening, as Case wove stories of bad relationships, down-and-outers and even murder.

It became obvious within the first five songs of the show that Case was entirely on fire. After doffing a note during “Witness,” she came back to hit the next one with even more volume and vibrato in her marvelously powerful voice. It would be the only note she missed all night.

Case benefited from her new backing band, as older songs like “I Wish I was the Moon,” and “The Tigers Have Spoken” took on a new feel, more lonesome-desert-highway-at-midnight than their previous barroom feel.

But the real star of the show was Case’s shimmering voice. More powerful than Loretta Lynn or Tammy Wynette’s, Case’s voice draws a direct line to the late, great Patsy Cline.

There’s something unexplainable in Case’s voice that makes it so unique. Even when she steps away from the microphone, there was a natural touch of reverb in her voice that cut through the old movie theater like a ghost of past voices. It’s unfair that one person could possess a voice like that. It’s just downright unfair that she’s not selling a million copies of everything she lends that voice to.

What also made the show work so well for Case was her own self-effacing humor. While most of Case’s jokes are nearly unprintable, they put the normally hostile Dallas crowd at ease.

While she stuck mostly to her own material, Case did throw in a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Buckets of Rain,” that showcased both the versatility of Dylan’s writing and her own vocal prowess.

After a set that went just over an hour, Case came back for two encores, which included a gospel reworking of “Wayfaring Stranger” and the forgotten classic “John Saw that Number.”

Unlike highly-hyped female rockers like Karen O and Liz Phair, Case was able to project both confidence and sexuality without appearing sleazy. Of course, if Karen O or Phair had a voice like Case’s, they’d probably clean up their act a little too.

1 Comments:

Blogger Rachel said...

I just barely missed this show--off by a couple of months. I am so, so, so, so sad.

1:10 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home