Two very eccentric women performed at the McDonald Theatre Saturday.
The night opened with Parisian artist Anne Laure, who was unsure about the pronunciation of Eugene. As she walked on stage she said, “Hello gene. Eu….gene. Gene?”
Laure’s performance was eccentric, to say the least.
She spelled out her stage name to the crowd (“A-P-P-A-L-O-O-S-A”), did jumping jacks and sang about horses, naturally.
Laure also controlled her own background music, having to walk over and push a button to switch songs.
After the first few songs, some people in front of me remarked, “I’m going to take this opportunity to go to the bathroom.”
That was the general sentiment in the crowd.
A few people clapped when she asked, “Do you guys love horses?” and she thanked them.
People also clapped when Laure asked someone in the audience if they like beer and then handed them the Corona she had been nursing through three or four songs.
Laure’s music just did not translate to the McDonald Theatre crowd, and her lyrics might have been the reason.
“Come on my best friend / Let’s go ride bareback horses, horses, horses / Kill the abject insects” were the only English lyrics from “Drapeau Dchir” (which means something about a flag…I think.)
She also sang, “When you say ‘saturn’ it sounds like ‘satan.’”
Even though Laure was virtually the only person in the theater moving, she showed incredible endurance.
She danced and jumped around for the entire 45-minute set.
Laure’s music could be good in the right context, like a prom montage on Dawson’s Creek, but during her set, I felt like I was watching a child learn about the demo function on a Casio SK-1 for the first time.
She even made airplane arms.
After a prolonged intermission that included at least five separate appearances of the same sound guy checking the same mic, Cat Power took the stage.
At least half of the show was played in darkness, except for some backlighting on the stage.
When she occasionally asked someone off stage to turn on the spotlight, the crowd screamed and cheered.
Cat Power’s voice was absolutely perfect. It sounded wise and soft.
It was always musical, even when she cleared her throat.
The idea of Cat Power is lovely, but Chan Marshall is just so strange on stage.
All you could see of Marshall, which is Cat Power’s real name, was an outline of her wiry body as she crouched, swayed and shuffled across the floor. Her legs reminded me of a Dwight Yoakam video.
Most of the songs she performed were off of her latest release, “Jukebox.”
Marshall’s standout performances were covers of “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra and “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac.
“Silver Stallion” was her best performance of an original song.
She galloped across the stage as she sang, “I’m gonna steal a silver stallion / With not a mark upon his silky hide / Teach him he can trust me like a sister / One day we’ll saddle up and ride.”
There were a lot of signs of Marshall’s infamous stage fright during the show.
She walked offstage several times and apologized while she was singing for making mistakes.
Regardless of her abnormal stage etiquette, Cat Power was a slice of brilliance.
If you closed your eyes really hard, you could hear Bob Dylan.
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