Case live and hot

by LES EVERETT

ON a night far too hot for rock Neko Case and her band knocked the stuffing out of the crowd at Fremantle's Fly By Night on Friday.

Despite the heat Case and harmony singer Kelly Hogan admitted to being very aroused and their soaring vocals seemed to energise the crowd that should have been drained after a sapping 40 degree day.

There were some technical difficulties, including a interruption that stopped 'Maybe Sparrow' mid-song but the band was in great form, with Jon Rauhaus adding some wonderful touches of banjo and pedal steel, and the Fly PA again pumped out a sound just right for the room.

Highlights included 'Dirty Knife' based on a story Case said she heard from her Ukrainian grandmother: "So suddenly the madness came. With its whiskered, wolven, ether pangs" and 'That Teenage Feeling' that spoke of feelings "...common as a winter cold."

Hearing Catherine Irwin's 'Hex' may have also inspired a few of the punters to track down a Freakwater album and keep the whole musical discovery thing going.

The Neko Case Australian tour continues.

The show was opened by Pete Stone accompanied by Kate Kelly and the sometimes dual violins of Tony Lane and Phoebe Cooke. It was a polished performance with Stone's vocals crystal clear and Cooke's blonde hair blowing in the breeze created by an off-stage fan providing a kind of vicarious relief from the heat.

29 January 2007

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