It had been far too long between Neko Case tours when we finally got ourselves down to the Academy to see her perform last week. We’d seen her for the first time when she was touring her amazing Furnace Room Lullaby album, playing to a tiny crowd at the Night & Day and she’d won me over completely. I had not been quite as taken with Blacklisted but enjoyed the album live. I was very much looking forward to this gig though because her current long-player, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, is a strong contender for my album of 2006. When The Ledge informed me that Kelly Hogan who we’d seen with her on that first tour, was opening again, I made certain we got down to the university early so as to see her as well.

The first hint of activity was the emergence of three men – two guitarists and a guy on double bass, saying that they were going to each play 3 songs and then Kelly Hogan would join them too. The first up was Paul something, Neko’s bassist, I did not catch his last name, he said he usually performs under the stage name Cousin Harley. He was on a battered acoustic guitar playing some very old-sounding traditional country tracks. He had a really worn-in voice, perfect for the country blues he was singing and I really enjoyed listening to him. Next up was Jon Rauhouse, Neko’s slide guitarist, and he played an amazing guitar instrumental before singing two other country tracks. His voice was not as good as his cohort but his guitar playing was faultless and I was transfixed watching his hands up and down the fretboard. Finally, Kelly Hogan, also on backing vocals for Neko, emerged for her three tracks. Now, I am familiar with her because we come from the same hometown of Atlanta, GA. When I was in high school, the only place to find new and unusual music was on the Georgia State University radio station. They were sometimes truly unlistenable, sometimes were devoted to the budding local music scene, heavily influenced by REM and the B-52’s from down the road in Athens, and sometimes much more universal. Back then, Kelly Hogan fronted a band called the Jody Grind who were constantly gigging in the area – I know this because I kept hearing them mentioned, and who were supposed to do great things. One night, however, while on their way to a gig in one of the Carolinas, they were in a horrible car accident and two members of the band were killed. So ended the Jody Grind and although I heard Kelly’s name mentioned on local music shows a few times I didn’t hear anything else. I cannot even remember what the Jody Grind sounded like, only that the name was so unusual it stuck. So, imagine my surprise when Kelly Hogan turned up with Neko a few years ago. She has a marvellous voice and bags of personality and it is a shame that she never managed to find another group with whom she clicked because she really should be headlining venues, not working as a backing singer. So yeah, she was very good. She did 2 older songs and one song that she wrote that has been included in the soundtrack to a movie about female wrestlers. Go figure.

Finally though, the main event. Neko emerged onto the stage into the very unflattering lighting to belt out an unfortunately truncated set. She has a magnificent voice which is always the centrepiece of any performance, and despite getting over a cold, she sounded absolutely faultless. In particular, the double whammy of “Set Out Running” and “Star Witness,” my favourite track off the new album, pretty much made my night. She was accompanied by her opening band and they entertained the crowd with banter about the tourbus and jokes at the expense of Rancid, who were playing in the Academy 1 next door. While “Deep Red Bells,” despite being the highlight of Blacklisted, failed to impress, “Hold On, Hold On” and “That Teenage Feeling” pretty much took my breath away and she certainly managed the sultry tones necessary for “Look for Me (I’ll Be Around).” While the set revolved mostly around Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, she threw in enough highlights from the back catalogue not to disappoint, and per usual it was bizarre watching her exchange cheerful banter with the crowd, being so warm and friendly before disappearing back into another mournful ballad.

When the band disappeared from the stage we thought we would be hearing a good six more songs, including her masterpiece, “Twist the Knife,” as we could see the setlist from where we were standing. Owing to the set having started at 9:45pm, as suddenly seems to be the norm in the Academy, whereas for the last 8 or 9 years it’s been 9:15pm for the main act, she only had time for a couple more. She finished with a rousing version of “John Saw That Number” to the delight of the crowd who had been baying for it. While it had been the only track on the record I did not like initially, it has grown on me and I thought it was a brilliantly fitting end to a fantastic set, although it would have been nice to have heard “Twist the Knife” and the intended closer, “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.” Hopefully it won’t be another 3 years before she makes it back again.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 7:34 pm by JustHipper and is filed under Gig Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.