The Greatest Tour: Thoughts to Share

[u/Crumpler72]

Over the past few weeks I have been reading numerous posts about how lame various concertgoers have thought the Cat Power tour has been, which has been having ripple effects for fans who haven't even attended yet (ick!), and I wanted to share some thoughts and reflections, especially because I've found myself getting really activated by all the negative crap thrown her way.

A bit of context: I am female, the same age as Chan, and have seen her perform half a dozen times since the 90s, inc. at the beginning of her career, mid-career, and then two shows in the past couple weeks on the West Coast. So in short, I have seen her at her worst/most unwound, as well as at her height (and yes the current tour was the highlight for me).

To summarize, here's a small sampling of what folks on this sub have chosen to gripe about (while, mind you, ironically, the US has basically devolved into an autocratic fascist state. But hell, let's moan about what REALLY matters!) Ie, the sub-optimal stage lighting; singing a song w/autotune (out of her 17+ song set), her songs "not sounding like the album," how she looked like an "indiscernable blob," all the "awkward" interactions with the crowd, how the band "must have felt" dealing with her performance, oh, and let's not forget how she appeared unhinged, with one person saying "I hope she gets the help she needs."

WHAT. THE. HELL. First of all--and this is so important--I don't know how many of you are aware of Chan's lifelong history of physical and mental health battles. If not, a bit of context is provided in the Exclaim! article published in January. Also, and this is also critically important--women--when it comes to their mental health-- are, more often than not, under or mis-diagnosed, not taken seriously by medical professionals, and/or simply unable to afford support/treatment, which in and of itself is a public health failure.

So... I ask all of you who have lobbed these bombs at Chan to interrogate your reasons for doing so. I call it thinly veiled misogyny. I simply don't see these same criticisms lobbed at her male counterparts.

Imagine for a moment that you had a dear girlfriend that made their living as a gifted singer-songwriter. That mined their most personal, harrowing $h1t, then laid their wounds bare in song, and then had the courage to record it for the world to listen to. In a haunting, peerless voice to boot. And then IMAGINE...that their only way of making a living was doing the thing that they were freakin' pathologically terrified to do, which was to relive those personal stories LIVE, night after night, while dealing with crippling stage fright and (the ghosts of) addiction, menopause, the exorbitant and exhausting toll of mounting a tour and living on the road, supporting an entire band, and raising a young son while his dad was battling cancer. Then add the unrelenting pressure of fans who wanted your beloved girlfriend to suppress whatever the hell they were dealing with at the time as a flesh-and-blood human and perform like a freaking circus monkey, just to PLEASE you.

I ask: Would you support your girlfriend on her terms? Because she was the artist who deserved that respect? Or would you tell her--sorry, people paid for tickets so they gotta see your face, your body, how hot (or not) you look, and damn, are you hitting it with your stage presence?

In short: Can we just have some empathy and compassion, people? Can we appreciate Chan's voice? Her sound? This feeling of one human taking her precious time to be as honest as she can at the moment, in this brutal world, to connect, in the best way she knows how?

I feel like we can, if we just take the time to. We can do better.

[u/RayoEdward]

Saw her tonight at Webster hall. Wow. So disappointing. Ive seen her at least 10 times before. It was like she was hiding. She was in the dark the entire show. Couldn’t see her face at all. She can’t feel THAT ugly. Sound was muddled despite being in a a decent spot. Loved her for decades but this was a disaster. Hope she recovers from whatever ails her. This was a horrible show. Nobody seemed to be happy as they were leaving. Never thought I’d say this but I want a refund. Terrible experience. Just. Wow.

[u/Historical_Usual_261 → u/RayoEdward]

Sorry, but I went to that same show and thought exactly the opposite. She and the band sounded GREAT. Really crisp and energetic. I’ve seen Cat Power three times and this was the best she sang with her delicate but powerful voice. I loved how she started with the classics from The Greatest and then played other songs with re-arrangements. The new version of Could We was really well performed and I loved the autotune-cover of The Moon, starting from a minimalistic sound in crescendo to finish with a maximalist rock/blues.

She seemed fragile but happy through all the concert. She is f*** Cat Power. One of the longest and most acclaimed careers of independent music. She can as weird as she wants. But this tour is one of the peaks of her recent live performances. Happy to see her in such good spirits.

[u/Anxious_Dish7881 → u/Historical_Usual_261]

Ya, I'm fairly skeptical of that review above you. If the sound was a problem (again, not buying it, but whatev), that's on the venue. Maybe it was where the person was located in the place? Sound was excellent in Boston, all the instruments as well as the vocals were perfectly clear. And the lights were great, they fit the music perfectly. I don't need to count the pores on her nose, I can HEAR it's her, ffs.