Review Cat Power: A Peaceful Crowd for Lady Cat

For the 37th edition of Montreal’s Jazz festival, our city is fulfilled with great and outstanding musicians performing for us from June 29th to July 9th. On June 29th, Chan Marshall, famously known as Cat Power, gave us a sweet performance at Métropolis. Cat Power is an American singer and musician, and has been recording albums since the mid-1990’s. She has released a total of nine albums, including a record with cover songs. Her music has been featured in multiple films and TV-shows, such as “Juno” (2007) and UK hit show, “Skins” (2007-2013).

On the first official evening of Montreal’s Jazz fest, people gathered at Metropolis for Cat Power. Montreal artist, Jesse Mac Cormack, warmed up the crowd with rock acoustic tunes and a profound voice. Cat Power appeared on stage, with her electric guitar already strapped on to her, and opened her performance with Old Detroit.

Power has an interesting background history of performances. In early 2000s, her concerts became unpredictable and inconsistent. She suffered from stage fright which caused her to abruptly end her songs and sometimes even leave the stage. Power later explained that she suffered from depression, alcohol and substance abuse. She has been sober for a decade now.

Chan has an beautiful way of transitioning from one to song to another, without necessarily stopping or warning the crowd. She just does as she feels and makes her performance feel like one big tune, with multiple guitar chords and piano notes linked together. Never once in my life have I seen a crowd at a concert so quiet – I think we could have heard a fly. The audience kept soundless to hear Cat Power’s intimate and charming voice. She performed some of her greatest songs; Fool, Hate, The Greatest, and 3,6,9, just to name a few. Her performance lasted for at least two hours. Cat Power really is a little gem on stage.