Learning on Friday afternoon that Jen Cloher was supporting was, of course, a big bonus for a show that I was already keenly looking forward to - and, as usual, she was good, mixing in two or three from Dead Wood Falls with a handful more from Hidden Hands, and ending with a Grant Lee Buffalo cover (one of the famous ones, but I don't know what it's called).
That said, the main event was Neko Case, and it was a good show, as I'd known it would be - with her material (including a last album as good as anything in her great back catalogue) and her ability, including as a live peformer, and especially given the quality of her band, it could hardly have been otherwise...but. But it was only a good show (and not a patch on last time), when it could so easily have been so much more. It started with the sound, I think - something was very wrong with the mix for the first three or four songs, with everything muddy and muffled, and the different instruments (most importantly, her voice) not coming through anyway near as clearly as they ought to've. During a break between songs, people from the audience started calling out for a sound check to be done, and Case seemed to take it personally; the sound was much better from then on (the sound people presumably having realised that they'd stuffed up), but by then the damage was done, as the performer herself didn't seem into the show at all from that point.
So, while I enjoyed it, this one was rather a disappointment, sad to say.
(w/ M, Wei, Meribah + a friend of Meribah's, one Caitlin)
