Cat Power, Manchester Academy

In a half-empty, newly refurbished Manchester Academy One support act Appaloosa take to the stage. The duo make an odd combination- a clean-cut youthful looking lad with earnest expression operates his gadgets to make whizzing and popping sounds over the pounding beat and leather clad female singer sporadically jumps around the stage. Neither looks particularly comfortable with the set-up and as their not-half-bad-if-you-like-that-kind-of-thing techno pop stylings hammer out over the crowd it seems noone is sure what to make of them.

As Cat Power takes to the stage amidst rapturous cheers she sheds some light on the matter, ‘Appaloosa’. Long pause. Utter silence from the crowd. ‘Me and that girl go waaay back.’ Ah, so that explains their otherwise completely inappropriate presence.

Mellowed out since her younger days of renowned drunken onstage mood swings Cat Power is still mesmerisingly eccentric. With ferocious intensity she offers up every syllable as if it were her last and her bluesy, smoke-hazed voice rolls over the now-packed space as she waves her limbs energetically with complete abandon. She is lent a huge hand by her band who deliver a faultless accompaniment and take her music into jamming psychedelic realms that are barely hinted at in her recordings. This new direction sees every chord progression as an opportunity to extend the riff and force the listener to pick out the melody as it is soaked in mournful piano drones and plaintive guitar. It works.

The performance is absorbing and dense, as you float in and out of awareness the music glides over you before delivering a punch with intensified vigour just before you find yourself truly falling. The lady herself is happy to share the limelight often stepping to the side of the stage to listen to one or other of her band offer their own take on her melancholic musings.

Having recently released a covers album the majority of the set revolves around the various homages, which can get a bit excessive. The show is just under 2 hours, which would usually be welcomed but the covers dominate with at least 8 of the songs pushing her own material to the background. A curious decision considering the strength of her back-catalogue but perhaps she’s tired of singing the same old tune. Her new take on ‘The Greatest’ is mostly melody-free, more of a drone than the anguished piano piece that almost bursts with disappointment on record. Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones and The Miracles are all blurred together, loaded with reverb and added bluesy prog to create a beautiful mish-mash.

She smiles, waves and hands flowers out to the crowd at the end of a generously extended set, a skewed version of the music scene’s very own queen. This is a serene and self-possessed Cat Power that we are greeted with tonight. Her music is all the more entrancing for it.