Photos and Review by Stephen Bloch
Royal Albert Hall was completed in 1871 by Queen Victoria. It has hosted countless concerts, meetings and sporting events. The Pabst Theater in Milwaukee was completed in 1895 and is the fourth oldest continually operating. While they have divergent histories, on Saturday evening they achieved kismet when Cat Power took the stage, playing all of Bob Dylan’s The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966! in its entirety. Cat Power has been on a sold-out tour playing her own 2023 release of the Dylan live album.
The show began a bit late. I had flashbacks of Bonnaroo 2006 when it took Chan Marshall three songs to muster up the energy to come out on stage. The delay only made the level of excitement more profound when she took the stage.
The show was broken down into two distinct parts. First came a stripped down acoustic segment with just Chan, a mic (and on this night, a towel, tea, and water-Chan was clearly under the weather) her harmonica and acoustic guitar players and then came a full blown rhythm and soul review backing band portion. During the acoustic portion, Chan gave us all permission to cough so that her off mic cough would be muffled. It was not effortless for her to get through the acoustic material that included lengthy renditions of Dylan’s ballads, including faves “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue”, “Desolation Row”, “Just Like a Woman”, and “Mr. Tambourine Man”. Nonetheless, it was beautiful.
Chan took a brief pause and gave the crowd permission to stand up and get their groove on as the other four members of her band took the stage. The fully backed portion gave her a chance to really dig deep into her vocals without the challenging exposure presented by being front and center in the acoustic portion. Maybe it was the crowd that brought out that side as well.
Just as Dylan did, Cat Power closed with arguably his most recognizable track, Like a Rolling Stone. Many patrons approached the stage for this culminating song. Everyone was singing along for this one.
Chan Marshall has had her share of personal ups and downs. Both the ups and downs play a part in her heartfelt singing and the vulnerability ever present at her shows. She really is The Greatest for that. She is a fighter and left the stage tonight giving herself an uppercut. Chan has gone the distance and we have been rewarded kindly.