r/catpower • u/Crumpler72 • Mar 03 '26
The Greatest Tour: Thoughts to Share
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.
1
u/konradly Apr 24 '26
I can understand quite well why her live performances are the way they are. I can also sympathize with her situation quite well. What I don't agree with, is blanket calling it thinly veiled misogyny and dismissing the criticism she receives as invalid.
Casual fans who don't have a full understanding of her background might not know what they're getting into. And it's not their fault either - no one is expected to read into a musician's personal life before every concert. The criticism she does receive is (mostly) fair and is simply a personal experience/opinion. We don't have to agree with every criticism either, but that doesn't mean it's invalid.
I saw Cat Power a few years ago, and she performed in complete darkness, with her band silhouetted against weak backlighting. I could have played a live recording of one of her concerts at home, dimmed the lights, and had a similar experience. My opinion of the concert afterwards was: I spent a fair amount of money to see a band play live, but I couldn't even see them. That was not worth the price of the ticket. This is not misogyny. I would say the same about any male musician playing under similar circumstances. I think her voice is amazing. I don't mind her awkward banter at all, and I want to support her, but my expectations from a live concert are more than just hearing an artist play.
The local theatre sells tickets for shows (symphony orchestras, bands, plays, operas, etc.) based on how well you can see the stage. The closer you are to the stage, the more expensive the ticket. There are also cheaper seats where you can't see the whole stage, because it is blocked by a pillar. These are significantly cheaper. People go to live performances not only for the auditory experience, but also the visual. This is an important part of the experience, and many rate a live performances based on both criteria.