NY Times talks to the now mostly sober (“seven drinks in seven months”) Cat Power:
Another day, another fifth of Scotch.And that wasn?t all. Chan Marshall said her mornings began with a minibar?s worth of Jack Daniel?s, Glenlivet and Crown Royal. Mini bottles depleted, this indie singer-songwriter, known as Cat Power, would nurse a bottle of Scotch over the course of the day. On nights she performed, she took the antianxiety drug Xanax.
By the time she would weave onstage, beer in one hand, cigarette in the other, Ms. Marshall, 34, was wasted. And it showed. It would seem that every fan has a Cat Power concert story…
What’s your Cat Power concert story? I’ve never seen “the old Chan Marshall” live, so my story is that everyone in the audience loved her at Bonnaroo and ACL. And she looks great.
But if you saw one of her infamous meltdowns, tell us about it. Times Jogs your memory: “The time she mooned the audience, cursed out techies, talked to a squirrel (outdoors), played three chords and changed her mind (song after song) or played fragments of a few songs and then told everyone to get out, even encouraging fans to sue her.”
The Greatest gets rereleased with new cover art and a new promotional push this fall. According to the article, she’s also thinking about another covers album and “auditioning to join the cast of Saturday Night Live next summer.” Sober Chan, the next Debbie Downer? Don’t hold your breath.
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Saw her last June in Greensboro, NC. Wasn’t a huge fan. Just heard “The Greatest” and loved it (still do).
She wasn’t god-awful, so to speak. Just really, really out of it. She still managed her way through halfway-decent covers of “Hit the Road, Jack” (aptly renamed “Hit the Road, Chan”) and “House of the Rising Sun,” but that didn’t stop her from cutting off nearly every song midway through to ask for more reverb, fewer spotlights, and various other nitpicky items. Fans shouted “You sound great!” to which Chan replied, “Yeah, but I could sound better.”
I knew something was up when she asked everyone in the audience to sit on the floor at the start of the show. After rambling through bits and pieces of “Greatest” songs for about two hours, she sat down on the front of the stage, asked for a cigarette from an audience member, and started talking about when she used to live in Greensboro, which was kinda cool seeing as how I’m from there, too. After a half-hour of chit-chat with the crowd, she said “Thanks for coming. ‘Night,” got up, and walked offstage.
Not the best concert, but it makes a good story, I guess. Why doesn’t she tour with the band that performed with her on “The Greatest”? Seems to me she’d be more coherent and together if she had a backing band keeping an eye on her.
I just want to give Chan a big hug.
Joke or not, she’s probably the only one who could make SNL watchable again.
i saw her play at an opera house in seattle and throughout her set she would slowly move away from the spotlight, then the spotlight would follow her and she would slink away away again. and i think she had her back to the audience for the most part. but she was great!
I caught a Cat Power show at Southpaw last in March of 2005 (I think?), and she had a typically awkward set. Started out strong, and when she was on, she was superb, but the set dissolved into stopping-and-starting songs, awkward interludes of playing a few notes on the piano or running scales, mumbled apologies and the like. Of course, the crowd was lame and wouldn’t stop talking. Almost seemed like they went just to watch her have a mental episode, which is a pretty disgusting reason to go to a concert.
Regardless, The Greatest is one of the most gorgeous records of the years.
I saw her last November at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, OH.
There were MAYBE sixty people at the show, so we were all invited onstage to stand around a tiny platform with a paino and a mic, and Chan would switch from guitar to piano throughout the evening. She didn’t seem drunk, but very, very self-conscious, mumbling between every song “I’m sorry guys, I really fucked that one up.” The set was a great mix of new and old, and I remember “Hate” and “Wild is the Wind” were particularly good that night.
I just saw her September 13th, 2006 in Chicago. She had the Memphis Rhythm Band with her, they played the first half of the set with her (almost everything from The Greatest) then left her to play some solo material. She handled it well, abandoning only one song (“Love and Communication”) and doodling a bit on the piano. I’d seen her solo once before and she struggled to get through even one song w/o interuptions. So to compare and contrast, a lot better these days.
But she sure didn’t seem sober, that may be because I’m used to the comotose Chan and last Wednesday she was dancing all over the stage like a nut.
For the record, I saw Chan play in Austin at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q last Sunday, September 17, and after she came back from a mid-set break and the Memphis Rhythm Band had played a song without her, she has a cigarette in one hand and an O’Douls non-alcoholic beer in the other, then made a comment about wanting to be a spokesperson for O’Douls someday.
My Cat Power review a couple of weeks ago
http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2006/09/05/caterpillar-power/
Saw her in November, 2000 and again a year later, both in New York. Man, they were brutal. The 3-chord change-up rings true. I remember the audience begging her to please just try to get through HALF metal heart before changing her mind. One guy yelled “you suck” in a silent crowd, wich led to a room of 19 year old girls yelling back “don’t listen to him, We love you!!!” Nevertheless, Chan left the stage in tears.
Saw her in November, 2000 and again a year later, both in New York. Man, they were brutal. The 3-chord change-up rings true. I remember the audience begging her to please just try to get through HALF metal heart before changing her mind. One guy yelled “you suck” in a silent crowd, wich led to a room of 19 year old girls yelling back “don’t listen to him, We love you!!!” Nevertheless, Chan left the stage in tears.
I saw her at the sonic youth-curated all tomorrow’s parties way back whenever it was, at UCLA (royce hall?). She kept running all the songs together, trying to eschew applause, and would stop mid-song to shake her long hair in front of her face, Cousin It-style. Most of the crowd was on her side, especially when a few drunkards kept shouting “when was yr last fix, chan?”, and so forth. I think only about ten or so people walked out, but there were two other stages running at the same time, so, you know….but, it was still packed. It almost felt like the world’s greatest talent show.
Here’s an idea… a Ryan Adams/Cat Power tour… what a couple of wastoids.
Saw Chan solo at the varsity in MLPS on Sept. 2. She was a complete train wreck.
Complaints about the amount of reverb gave way to stops-and-starts on a dozen songs. The ones she did manage to finish were sparse and powerful. But then she would start complaining again … about anything.
At one point she put her head down on the piano and just sat there for a couple of minutes.
I saw the Replacements play a number of times for the hometown fans. I knew what to expect going in – half played songs and drunken shananigans. (Paul once fell into the orchestra pit with the mic stand, got back on his feet and kept playing. Priceless). But at least the Mats were having fun.
At Chan’s show I felt as though I was sitting in on a narcissist’s couch session. Painful to watch. I finally bailed after two hours – at least an hour longer than I felt was appropriate. Rumor has it she played for another 30 minutes and then had one of her abovementioned chat sessions before wandering off stage.
I sort of wish she had been drunk. At least there would have been an excuse for her behavior.
Saw her at some NYU student center when she was playing with the Dirty Three back in the late 90s. She melted down and left the stage. The D3 tore it up. They were awesome.
i booked her to the play the soul bar here in augusta georgia about 5 years ago……people here didn’t believe she would play a proper set……had heard she freaked out in athens last time….but, her set was perfect!
she played the piano…….and guitar……and sang….
and the whole place was quiet….
it was one of the best music moments of my life….
and she was so nice afterwards….
i remember she said….”i’ll be coming back for halloween…but, you won’t know it’s me, cause i’ll be in costume…..”
dang, i love that girl!
i booked her to the play the soul bar here in augusta georgia about 5 years ago……people here didn’t believe she would play a proper set……had heard she freaked out in athens last time….but, her set was perfect!
she played the piano…….and guitar……and sang….
and the whole place was quiet….
it was one of the best music moments of my life….
and she was so nice afterwards….
i remember she said….”i’ll be coming back for halloween…but, you won’t know it’s me, cause i’ll be in costume…..”
dang, i love that girl!
i booked her to the play the soul bar here in augusta georgia about 5 years ago……people here didn’t believe she would play a proper set……had heard she freaked out in athens last time….but, her set was perfect!
she played the piano…….and guitar……and sang….
and the whole place was quiet….
it was one of the best music moments of my life….
and she was so nice afterwards….
i remember she said….”i’ll be coming back for halloween…but, you won’t know it’s me, cause i’ll be in costume…..”
dang, i love that girl!
Saw her play in London when “The Covers Record” came out. It was a quiet, all-seated venue, so when someone got up to go to the bathroom it was pretty obvious. About halfway through she stopped mid-song and said, in a hugely petulant manner, “Why does everyone keep leaving?” (‘everyone’ meaning the 5 or 6 people who had got up so far and then returned about 5 minutes.) After a bemused silence, someone said “Er…they’re going to the bathroom.” “WELL, WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME THAT?” she yelled, as if everyone should stop her mid-song and ask for permission before going for a leak.
Other then that, it was a really dull show. I had put her into the “great on record, dull as ditchwater live” category, but I’d consider seeing her again if she’s really improved that much.
Anybody watch the video interview with Chan on the NY Times front page? Weird as hell… Like sitting in an AA meeting.
she ignored the audience and spoke to a squirrel for 15 minutes. i’m not kidding. no.
i was at the show with the squirrel a few years back… weird shit…
i saw her at bowery ballroom a long, long time ago. she came out, made it through one song, then did the stop/start/stop/start thing unsuccessfully with 4 songs or so. then she went into a bag lady type rant about how her guitar didn’t like her. then she abruptly started shrieking about “it’s hurting me! it’s hurting me!” and tried to get it off, ended up falling down and climbing out of her guitar strap. i remember the other guitarist trying to calm her down, but i don’t think i heard another complete song that night. oh well, she can always go on ‘the surreal life’ if she runs outta cash.
i also saw her at stubbs this weekend and i was confused because i thought shed quit drinking, but she didnt look sober to me. oh well…it was her weird antics that made the show entertaining anyways.
Saw her at ACL, didn’t realized she had sobered up. All I’d heard people talk about were her wasted performances, so it was a surprise. I like her.
i saw the great cat power disaster of 2003*. but on the other hand, i also saw her play a show in 98 with the tren brothers that was quite good.
* http://www.neumu.net/datastream/2003/2003-00112/2003-00112_datastream.shtml
I saw her in Glasgow a couple year ago, and she didn’t finish any of the songs that she started.
She was abviously drunk, and kept asking for free Whiskey. She ended the show by curling up into a ball on the stage and wailing the song “Fuck the Pain away” by Peaches. She pretty much had a breakdown.. it was nuts. After that weirdness, she picked a guy from the audience and told him to come with her backstage (suggesively) and that was the end.
I am with triple-postin’ maya lucia, a lucky one:
I saw Cat Power in 2003 in Omaha, NE and instead of showing Omaha how tortured Conor Oberst (he opened) isn’t, Chan played a nearly flawless 90 minutes.
She may have restarted one or two songs when she was playing solo, but always jumped right back into, it, unfazed.
She played nothing from Moon Pix. Nothing.
Maybe that is the key, right there.
Also, Bright Eyes were worse than usual that night. Maybe seeing some feigned misery wised Chan up, at least for an evening.
I was at ATP five years ago at UCLA as well. Cat Power was riduclous!! She sounded horrible. She said she was coming down with something and that she hurt her finger playing basketball (was that supposed to explain her bad guitar playing and sorry voice?). So, she kept starting songs over and over again and cutting others off. Ever since then, I have had no respect for her or her music. What’s the point of a musician only sounding good when recorded?
I saw her freakout/breakdown shtick 3 times before I resolved to only buy her records and no longer see her live. The most memorable? Circa 1999 at a show that some NYU group put on at Irving Plaza (the bill was Britt Daniel and his drum machine, Bright Eyes and Cat Power). She played a third or half of about ten songs (alternating between her guitar and and an upright piano) before jumping off the stage and running out the door of the venue, not to be seen again.
I saw her freakout/breakdown shtick 3 times before I resolved to only buy her records and no longer see her live. The most memorable? Circa 1999 at a show that some NYU group put on at Irving Plaza (the bill was Britt Daniel and his drum machine, Bright Eyes and Cat Power). She played a third or half of about ten songs (alternating between her guitar and and an upright piano) before jumping off the stage and running out the door of the venue, not to be seen again.
I don’t remember much – But saw her in 2004 at a free ass show she played for botching up another one earlier that year in Miami. (they say she asked people from that crowd to come up and tune her guitar, cause she didn’t know how to.)
As reported in the previous posts, there was a serious lack of finished songs. Lots of “get me a drink” and after an amazingly beautiful 3/4th of “Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground” she stops and yells
“Man, I want to fuck Jack White SOOO badly”
She proceeded to talk about Jack White 6 or 7 more times, played six more half songs and stopped and started eating pizza on the side of the stage
My friends and I thanked her for a good show and she bows her head down and responds
“It was horrible. I’m horrible. I don’t know why people come see me” with a mouthful of pizza.
It felt like an Art Brut mirror image – All talent, no showmanship, no confidence – but such an amazing voice.
just an entertainer, performer, actress. probably with help from intoxicants. no one remembers the smooth ones.
Ok, I’ve been drinking too! But I had absolutely no idea that Chan had a drinking problem. I must be behind. I saw her at the ACL taping Monday night though. She was pretty entertaining! She was having a hard time getting into the groove of performing solo that night. She kept trying a cover of House of the Rising Sun and fucking up… At one point she mentioned she was having a “bad show” and that “now it’s on fucking television”. Pretty funny stuff! I really enjoyed her though. It was a nice show.
everyone talking shit about chan can fuck off!! i saw her and the mem. band at bonnaroo and i loved it. so what if she has problems, we all do! and at least she interacts with the crowd which is more than most muscians do. id like to see some of the shit talkers get up and play some guit,piano,or even just sing! so whatever, dont go to the next show, it leaves more room for me, plus i dont like being around assholes. anyone can e mail me at e2thev@hotmail.com if they want to argue. anyways i love you all!!
I saw Chan perform on the Covers Record tour a while back. It was a lot of the previously reported antics. Lots of start/stop songs, mumbling and complaining about the brightness of the lights. The sad part of the whole concert was a collection of audience members who seemed to be there only to egg on Chan’s insecurities. They only made her obvious stage fright worse, and in turn ruined what could have been a good show.
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Saw her last night in Montreal… and she was top shape. She was funny, beautiful, and so generous. I loved the show.
I saw her in spring of 2003 in Tempe, and had been advised in advance about how she can be. She was touring for “You Are Free”, and started out with her band, sounding good and having a good time, by all indications. She appeared to get upset about her boyfriend talking to a girl beside the stage, and started drinking heavily from a clear liquor in a plastic cup. The band left and she played solo piano, stopping to crawl across the stage, offering drinks to the people in front. She shouted at my drunk friend, saying “that girl is talking too much, I see it as malicious”, when in fact my friend was ranting about how much she loved Chan. She wandered from one song to another as her head nodded, bumping the mic. She kept telling the crowd it was okay if we left, though people were yelling such things as “I love you Miss Powers!” She finally got up, waved to the crowd with a smile, and staggered off. After a few minutes I got up and climbed on stage to touch her cool-ass guitar. I absolutely love her and her music, and I do hope that she can be sober. If people traded stories about me during my drinking career, they would be just as embarassing but without the talent that she has. I must say I do wish I could have seen her talking to a squirrel for 15 minutes. I would only love her more.
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I haven’t seen her yet but i was loving her 2 or 3 years ago, not even a mention here in Europe about her then. Hopefully i will get the drunk version talking to a squirell, love it!!
Wondering if anyone out there has seen Chan play in the last two or three months and if so what has the show been like? Have tickets to see her at the end of June in Calgary, Alberta and so looking forward to seeing her live regardless how weird and/or wonderful she may be that night….
i saw her last month with the dirty delta blues at the forum in london and she was completely different to what people have written here. she barely spoke to the audience but was very professional, believe it or not, and only had one ‘moment’ where she was talking to some guy at the side of the stage asking about the sound i think (to be fair – it was quite bad) and the band kind of had to play the same riff over and over for a bit. i could see people holding thier breath, like ‘is she going to carry on?’ but she did and it was fine. her voice, of course, was BEAUTIFUL, like rusty honey, better than on records, but hearing about all the funny stuff she used to get up to sort of makes me wish there was more of that. but definately worth seeing
I saw Chan play in Philly in 2003 and it was one of the most evil displays of drug and alcohol uses I have ever seen. It was funny for the first song where she stopped playing and unbuttoned her pants, but then it starting getting pathetic and painful to watch her hide behind the piano and mutter. I felt dirty for watching her. I told my wife that she’d be dead in a year at that pace. Thank God she fought threw it.
I saw her tour for Moon Pix in Pontiac, MI (outside Detroit) and she was amazing. She was definitely very shy and played a lot with her back to the audience or her hair in her face, but she was sweet and gracious.
Hopefully she is in a good place now. Her new EP, Dark Side of the Street is very good.
I’ve seen her six or seven times-four or five pre-sobriety and two post. The first shows were the usual mix of uncomfortably naked angst and half-finished songs that had just begun to mesmerize when she broke them off to hide behind her hair and mutter. The last two: unbelievable, revelations. She was still Chan: impulsive, awkward, prone to inscrutably weird comments. But where she had once interrupted songs to mutter forlornly to her piano, she now abandonned verses to do a giddy, adorable chicken-dance; her strange hair-shaking and face-slapping was replaced by the charmingly odd, ragged poses she struck for certain lyrics or drum riffs; and instead of leaving prematurely, she seemed almost incapable of leaving the stage both nights and performed loooong encores with lots of hugging and clapping with her band members, who are quite clearly a very important support system. At both shows she closed with an a cappella version of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” that made me want to laugh and cry at once. It was beautiful.