Neko Case live

Neko Case
Park West, Chicago
Thursday, March 29, 2007

The scheduled reemergence of The New Pornographers this fall will effectively yank Neko Case (the solo artist) off the concert circuit for at least the next year. Yet if this, the second of three, sold-out shows at the Park West, was supposed to be some seat-of-her-pants send-off, it was remarkably more disciplined than the hoedown one year ago at the Vic.

There was just as much goofing around onstage between Case, guitarist Jon Rauhouse, and backup singers Kelly Hogan and Nora O’Connor — Case even broke out laughing in the middle of the otherwise serious “I Wish I Was The Moon” — yet she and band seemed a little down in the first half of the set. Case, Hogan, and O’Connor opened with a note-perfect rendition of “A Widow’s Toast,” while the band created a reverb behind them that was part orchestra rehearsing, part storm cloud.

“That Teenage Feeling” then sported a new wardrobe, out of its polka-dotted sock-hop reverie and placed barefooted in the dirt, downhome and less nostalgic, and a sad-eyed pedal steel nudged “Set Out Runnin'” along. Straight versions of “Star Witness,” “Lady Pilot,” “Margaret Vs. Pauline,” and “Dirty Knife” followed, and by the time the echoing “la-di-das” from “Maybe Sparrow” faded, a dramatic arc had been established.

Sensing this, Case and Hogan perked up (first by taunting Rauhouse) then enlivening, appropriately, with tracks from Case’s The Tigers Have Spoken live album: “Soulful Shade Of Blue” and the title track. The evening’s whole demeanor swung wide, and suddenly Case’s ebullient wail of “Deep Red Bells” energized the mostly seated Park West for the remainder of the set. A lengthy breakdown of Peeps candies was perhaps the greatest evidence of this, a sugary snack propelling the band through a rousing version of “John Saw That Number.”

Regressing isn’t normally a good thing in music, but it brought Case and co. back to the Vic in 2006, exactly where everyone wanted them to be from the outset.

Opener Matt Pond PA seemed as in a hurry to get off the stage and watch Case as the audience were to see them go. With the amps cranked too high and a chugging arm raking his power chords, a hirsute Pond focused primarily on songs from his band’s fifth album, Several Arrows Later (Altitude), practically discarding an underrated chamber pop past. While his endearing yelp hasn’t left him, Pond’s determination to finally break his band through to a larger audience led to some cut corners. (The Shins’ success must be absolutely killing him.)

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly