Seeing Cat Power sing Bob Dylan’s most classic songs from 1966 at the Sydney Opera House for Vivid Live felt a little like a warp in the time-space-continuum. With her incandescent voice, old-school jazzy dress and crazy-high stilettos, the iconic songstress cut an intriguing – albeit, silhouetted (the lights were very, very dim) – figure on the Concert Hall’s grand stage.
With a strict ban on all photography, this smart-phone-less experience was spiked with a deep and enduring sense of timelessness, made all the more potent through Power’s pure vocals. We could’ve been anywhere, at any point in history, anywhere in the solar system.
But despite all the magic, this night wasn’t without a few tiny idiosyncrasies.
Cat Power has long existed as an indie ingénu in the alternative music consciousness. Her wild vocals have always transported her listeners to high and soulful planes of existence, and getting to hear her recreate Dylan’s groundbreaking 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert was no different. Shrouded by pulsing pink and blue light, she held the cavernous space at the Opera House through her voice alone, with her smooth melodies staying strong, true and heart-wrenchingly beautiful for a full hour and 45 minutes.
Dylan’s 1966 concert became a thing because of one thing: shock factor. His sudden intro of electric guitar at a folk concert stirred up a whole lot of scandal back in the day. The moment in history was described by Power as a “precipice of time that changed music forever”. Power stayed true to the legend throughout her one-off Sydney show, bringing a rejuvenating vulnerability to classic ballads like Mr Tambourine Man, Visions of Johanna, Desolation Row and Just Like a Woman.
Exactly like Mr Dylan in 1966, Power started everyone off nice and slow with a dusky harmonica and a single acoustic guitar player on stage, lulling us all into folk town – only for her to suddenly let it rip with a full band, blazing stage lights and an electronic, drum-heavy cacophony that got people bopping in their seats. This deliverance was exactly what we all needed, taking us from a place of dreamy worship to a vivid, sixties-style rock palace. Magnificent.
Power has a bit of a reputation for not playing by the rules when it comes to performing, and as someone who had only ever heard her searing dulcet tones in my headphones on the bus, I was slightly taken aback by her stage presence – not to say that it was bad, but rather, just a little unexpected. Jerkily gesturing for a new cup of herbal tea (we’ve all been there), moving aimlessly around the stage when she wasn’t singing, and then gaslighting us all into thinking we were getting an encore after a reasonably long standing ovation – only to nod shakily at the audience, flash a peace sign and then nonchalantly spike her way off stage, leaving the lights to abruptly snap on. All a little confusing – but nothing that really detracted from the sheer transcendence of this experience.
At the end of the day, getting to see Cat Power live, in one of the most glorious sound cathedrals on Earth while Vivid glistened outside, was a powerful privilege that I will never take lightly.
If there’s one thing for sure, there’s nobody quite like Cat.
