[ATTENDED: October 6, 2022] Cate Le Bon
Cate Le Bon has been on the top of my “bands to see list” for a few years now. I have tried to see her a bunch of times to no avail. In 2019, I sold Phish tickets so that I could see her at Boot & Saddle, but i was too burnt out to go. Then in 2020, she was supposed to play with Kurt Vile, but that got cancelled twice. She was scheduled to play Philly for a benefit show, but I didn’t want to see her in that kind of setting. So, although I guess it has not been that long that I’ve wanted to see her, but prior to 2019, the last time she’d played Philly was 2017, and I feel like I found out about her right around that time.
Whatever the case, I’d heard her shows were amazing and was really looking forward to it.
I went into the show not knowing her music all that well. I knew a few albums and had listened to Pompeii (the new album which I knew she was touring), but I expected to be blown away by the performance.
And I wasn’t.
The whole show was fine. The band (Euan Hinshelwood on sax, keyboards and guitar; Toko Yasuda on bass; Dylan Hadley on drums; and Alex Morrison on keyboards and guitar) were all very good. There was a little too much sax for my liking, although I did enjoy the way Hinshelwood distorted the sound so it sounded like a guitar at times. Toko Yasuda on bass was the highlight for me. Her bass sounded great–ever fluid, deep and rumbly and just a nice low comforting presence amid all the rest of the higher notes.
I enjoyed the stage set up with Cate on a slightly raised platform off to the side (although I had adjusted myself to perfectly see the center microphone and there was a larger guy now blocking my view of Cate). She mostly played a day-glo orange guitar shape as a sort of pentagon.
I think what it comes down to is that I think that Cate is pretty weird. And I expected this concert to be weird in a wonderful way. And really, it was just fine. The lighting was muted colors. Her voice is soft and chill. It was all very laid back and mellow. And that is simply not what I thought we’d be getting.
Obviously, this is my fault for having the entirely wrong expectations. Not to mention her newest album Pompeii is pretty different from her weirder earlier stuff–the stuff that I was more familiar with.
Sometimes, you need to see an artist right when you first wanted to.
SETLIST
- Miami √
- French Boys ¶
- Pompeii ¶
- Daylight Matters √
- Moderation ¶
- Running Away ¶
- Typical Love *
- Mother’s Mother’s Magazines √
- Magnificent Gestures √
- Rock Pool ®
- Sad Nudes √
- Mug Museum ϖ
- The Light √
- Home to You √
- Remembering Me ¶
encore - Harbour ¶
- Dirt on the Bed ¶
¶ Pompeii (2022)
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