Neko Case in Concert
That changed last night, when I took in Neko Case at Radio City Music Hall. Waiting for the show to start I tried to remember all the other shows I'd seen there: Paul Simon, 10,000 Maniacs, Suzanne Vega, The Pretenders. It felt good to be back.
It's interesting to find out who else is a fan of someone you really dig. My Neko Case fandom pretty much existed in a vacuum--everyone I told about the concert hadn't heard of her. I wasn't surprised by seeing who else was there--a lot of white people. The number of non-white faces was minuscule--the majority of them were the Radio City staff. I wasn't the oldest person there, but I definitely raised the median age. I would say the average age was about thirty, and they weren't really a hipster bunch (although there were a few pork-pie hats). And it wasn't an overwhelmingly vegan, NPR-listening, Greenpeace-donating bunch, but it probably leaned that way.
No, it was just a bunch of average young white people, and they were orderly. When I used to go to concerts at venues that had chairs, it was always interesting to see if it would be a sit-down show or a stand-up show, or even a stand-on-the-seat show. This was definitely a sit-down show, and a quiet and attentive one. Even during Case's most up-tempo shows, the only movement to be seen was a sea of nodding heads.
The opening act was a singer named AC Newman and his band, and he fit in with Case's style (nothing is worse than an opening act that doesn't gel with the headliner). He is part of this movement of Appalachian-tinged music, replete with a bass fiddle and a mandolin player (who wore a bowler), but there was no one wearing suspenders. His set was solid, though it didn't want to make me buy his album.
Case went on at 9:15 and played for about an hour and fifteen minutes. She had a five-piece band, with one guy showing incredible diversity, playing guitar, keyboards, and even a trombone. The bass player, who also played the upright bass, had a snowy white beard the size of a dinner plate.
Neko was wearing a sleeveless, slinky black cocktail dress that ended just above the knee. Often she seemed uncomfortable in it, like a tomboy dressed up for a fancy dinner. Her red, pre-Raphaelite hair cascaded behind her, and she sang with the microphone raised so she had to tilt her head back, like a person emerging gratefully from a dark room into the sun.
The show opened with the sonar pings of "Where Did I Leave That Fire," from her most recent record, and her set I believe was almost exclusively from her last four albums. Of course she played quite a bit from her latest release, The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You. I was happy to hear one of my favorites, "Red Bells," from her album Blacklist.
I was surprised that she didn't talk more. From hearing her interviews, she's funny with an eclectic knowledge base. Most of the talking was by her backup singer, Kelly Hogan, and the two chatted at often cross purposes. Case did mention that it was Christmas year-round at Radio City, and she spotted a door that said "Christmas Operations." Hogan, referring to Case's penchant for writing sinister lyrics, introduced the song "Maneater" by saying, "Here's a bloody song. The first bloody song."
It was a good show, with Case's voice in fine form--I wondered if she really needed a microphone. The songs sounded exactly like they do on record--there were no drum solos or re-interpretations. There were also no off-the-wall cover versions. It was designed for the Case fan, with no surprises, which was a bit disappointing. I would have liked to hear her take on an old sixties song or maybe a pop hit, Neko Case-style.
But really, my only regrets are that she didn't play my favorite of her songs, "Star Witness," and that I sat too far back for her to catch my eye during the show so that she could fall in love with me at first site.
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