Neko Case

Belly Up Tavern - February 18, 2007

Live Review by Adam McKibbin

“I’m so tired, I’m so tired,” Neko Case sings in “I Wish I Was The Moon.” “Wake up!” replied one of the wags in the audience at the Belly Up, a contingent that Case later complimented as the most reliably enthusiastic—and drunk—on her tour itinerary. And if Case was a little fatigued, it was understandable; San Diego’s tony Solana Beach was the last stop on another leg of another tour (she starts back up at the end of March). Plus, it was a rainy night, which can be traumatic in places like San Diego, where residents aren’t used to adversity in their weather forecasts, and visitors are banking on a respite from their native climes. Outside the Belly Up, even the traveling man passing out free ice cream from the trunk of his car (not as creepy as it sounds) seemed a little over it.

Of course, Case & Co. are seasoned pros, and were able to shake off the yawns—and the rain, and even some technical difficulties—to deliver the goods. Case in particular seems to be able to just flip the switch and rattle the rafters; it is not an exaggeration to say that she is one of the most powerful vocalists in music today. Despite her relative young age (36), she’s already achieved a sort of iconic status— similar to Alison Krauss, but without the houseful of Grammys.

2006’s Fox Confessor Brings The Flood was Case’s fourth and best studio release, meaning her go-to setlist has become increasingly formidable during the past year. The full-blooded melancholy of “Star Witness,” the rollicking, revealing narrative of “Hold On, Hold On” (“I leave the party at 3 A.M….alone, thank God”), and the stubborn romanticism of the “brave friend” in “That Teenage Feeling” were all highlights of the set, rendering even a drunken audience mostly silent and spellbound. [Two sidenotes here: first, Rachel Flotard has logged plenty of shows as Case’s accompanying vocalist, a daunting and crucial role that Flotard fills well—albeit the between-song banter between the two that is often cited as a surprise treat was largely M.I.A. in Solana Beach; second, the drunken audience was mostly silent and spellbound, making the exceptions all the more distracting and irritating. One martini-blitzed couple near this reviewer seemed unaware that 1) anyone was on stage and 2) anyone else was in the audience.]

Of course, there are still old friends on the setlist, too, like “Favorite” and Case’s easygoing treatment of Bob Dylan’s “Buckets of Rain,” a longtime set staple which also appears on the Live from Austin CD/DVD released earlier this year. When the just-long-enough set concluded with “John Saw That Number,” a peppy spiritual that was the sole track on Fox Confessor to feel like it was repeating ground covered in the past, the packed house headed out for free ice cream and buckets of real rain on their heads and windshields—content but maybe not thunderstruck. Still, when you’re at the top of your game, even a B or B-plus show is going to resonate.