After a lengthy summer off, the Barbican's autumn season of music kicked off with a performance by country noir singer/songwriter Neko Case. Formley lead vocalist of The New Pornographers, she has been playing her unique brand of folk since 1997 when she went solo and released her first album The Virgintan, which received wide critical acclaim.
Dainty, with ice-white skin and a shock of scarlet hair, what Case may not have in size she certainly makes up with stage presence. Her haunting vocals, with somewhat ambient rock accompaniment managed to totally spellbind the Barbican audience. An eclectic ban of bearded, greying men make her up band, who really provide a great depth to the live performance but the real star of the show, surprisingly, was Kelly Hogan (Case's chief backing vocalist), she not only has a beautiful voice which compliment and adds to Neko's but her banter between songs (whilst the leader is ever-changing guitars and leads) made the performance funny and her, incredible likeable! At times it even felt like the two singers were dueting rather than one supporting the other.
There's an earthly, wordly, dare I say, wholesome quality to the music performed by Neko Case, which is most relevant to her recent album Middle Cyclone, in which many songs feature weather references along with a lot of nods to different animals and creatures, she also manages to sing I'm a Man Eater in a song and actually mean she'll eat men (rather than in a seedy Nelly Futardo style). Check out her super cute video for People Got A Lotta Nerve.
Dainty, with ice-white skin and a shock of scarlet hair, what Case may not have in size she certainly makes up with stage presence. Her haunting vocals, with somewhat ambient rock accompaniment managed to totally spellbind the Barbican audience. An eclectic ban of bearded, greying men make her up band, who really provide a great depth to the live performance but the real star of the show, surprisingly, was Kelly Hogan (Case's chief backing vocalist), she not only has a beautiful voice which compliment and adds to Neko's but her banter between songs (whilst the leader is ever-changing guitars and leads) made the performance funny and her, incredible likeable! At times it even felt like the two singers were dueting rather than one supporting the other.
There's an earthly, wordly, dare I say, wholesome quality to the music performed by Neko Case, which is most relevant to her recent album Middle Cyclone, in which many songs feature weather references along with a lot of nods to different animals and creatures, she also manages to sing I'm a Man Eater in a song and actually mean she'll eat men (rather than in a seedy Nelly Futardo style). Check out her super cute video for People Got A Lotta Nerve.
