At 8.40 the feeling of anxiety is replaced by one of excitedness as the lights go down and a band emerge onstage, but wait, there seems to be one person missing, the anxiety returns. The Memphis rhythm band, her vast 12 person backing band, featuring legendary guitarist for Al Green’s band Mabon “Teenie” Hodges appear onstage, only minus one person. Whats happened to her? Where is she? Consious? Has she run away? All these questions run through my head as The Memphis Ryhtm Band launch into a blues jam. Who knows, really. From the looks on peoples faces as the band launch into their second jam they’re asking the same questions I am.

Everything is forgotten as the opening familiar piano chords of album opener “The Greatest” sing out through the pristine sound of the sold out Barbican. Worried? Who was worried? She is introduced like a god, by one of the two backing singers. “Ladies and Gentlemen, May I introduce to you, The one, the only, the greatest, CAT POWEERRRRRR”. It seems self indulgent, but when you think of Marshall’s shy nature, where she oddly believes that noone would actually pay to see her, she really needs it, just to brave it out onto the stage infront of all these staring eyes.

She timidly emerges from behind the back curtain clutching a disposible cup, not alcohol as I had been told to expect, but tea. She’s actually sober. She sips her tea and fiddles with the sleeves the green khagk shirt she is wearing, stepping upto the mike just in time to sing. And my god. She really does have one of the greatest voices I have ever heard. I can’t describe it. It just draws you in and enthralls you until your under the spell. Once you’re under there is no coming back, you’re hers. The whole the room is silent, and any person who tries to make a noise is shushed. I think it’s the lush, deep texture of it that does it.

Without the relative safety or the piano or guitar to hide behind she seems even more nervous making awkward movements with her hands, relentlessly figiting and dancing while she sings. It must be even harder for her considering she is sober, her troubles with alcohol are well documented here tonight. We discover that the “health reasons” that caused the postponement of the original date was down to the fact Marshall was recovering from Alcoholism. Despite looking as if she needs something to do with the hands, you tend to feel she needs the band a lot more, even if it is just to hold her back if she trys to slip away. Most of tonights set is played with the band, meaning most of the set is drawn from ‘The Greatest’, but despite not being my favourite it is something incredible about it in a live setting like this.

When the band leave midway through the set leaving Chan alone by the grand piano that lies towards the centre of the stage we get a glimpse of her back catalogue, if only for a very brief while. During this time we also worryingly get to see a glimpses of the old Cat Power. On top of her relentless figiting she also battles the mike stand that sits next to her piano and fights a loosing war with a the lighting rig shining down on her, but she is appolagetic for it. “I wanted this to be the best show” she mutters into the microphone. But this is a more happy Cat Power now. A more content Cat Power. She even changes the lyrics of ‘Hate’ to “I don’t hate myself and I don’t want to die” and makes songs such as the Nina Simone ‘Wild is the Wind’ a lot more upbeat by altering it, making it less of the sad song that it was, and more the happy, hopefully song it could be.

But it’s still like watching a bomb which could go off at any minute, which in someways adds to the enjoyment of it. At one point she comes close looses it, leaving the stage while the band returned to the stage to play another jam, after which Cat power returned to another big ego boost attempt from the backing singer. The encore of ‘Love and Communication’ seemed like a perfect ending to the night, but then after much persuassion from the crowd she returned to the stage to sing, without accompanyment except for her backing singers, a version ‘Track of my tears’. This seems a turning point for Chan Marshall, for one, she loves the applause, maybe for a second, just a second believing that people DO actually love her music than wondering why all these people are here. She wanted it to be the best show, and despite her faults, it really really was.

Matthew Harris