Recap Neko Case at the State Theatre

Neko Case’s incandescent and all-powerful voice could never be dulled by its surroundings. And yet, seeing her flanked by spindly trees on the floorboards of the spectacular State Theatre, surrounded by the sheltering semi-circle of her band, accompanied by a video screen held by a giant owl with glowing yellow eyes, it was hard not to feel retroactively robbed by previous performances at First Avenue. That's not to denigrate First Avenue’s status as a premier rock venue—it’s just that Case shines brighter in a grandiose theater where every spectator sits enraptured at the overwhelming force of her voice.

Furthermore, that voice—which she described to The New Yorker’s Sasha Frere-Jones as “breathing through a fire hose”—has in recent years been wedded more tightly to startling imagery and beguiling song structures as she’s strayed ever further from the country-ish terrain where her career first took root. She’s no longer just a voice, but now a first-rate lyricist, singing of long shadows, gunpowder eyes, and inmates hanging “their thoughts to dry above their heads” in “Prison Girls.” More than half of her set at the State drew from her most recent album, the stellar Middle Cyclone, and nearly half the remainder from 2006’s Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. The grand scale of the venue allowed subtler elements to step to the fore, from the strange cigar-box mandolin/ukelele (dubbed the Shegby, after their sound engineer Shelly and guitarist Paul Rigby, who built it) played by singer Kelly Hogan on “Middle Cyclone” to the grinding fuzz bass deployed to startling effect on “Red Tide” to the chiming of Case’s tenor guitar on the double-time bridge of “Deep Red Bells.”

Onstage, Case and Hogan—who doesn’t get enough credit for singing harmonies that often hold Case’s titanic voice aloft—bantered amiably about shirtless dudes in Chicago commenting on giant soft drinks (“Double Gulp! That’s a big ass pop.”), Case’s lack of circulation (“Apparently, I have no blood in my body. I feel like an Otter Pop.” “What flavor would you be?” “Grape. You?” “Oh, probably Orange.”), and Case’s difficulty in keeping her pants up. Hogan’s suggestion that she try body painting was greeted with some enthusiastic hoots.

Through it all came that voice, one that’s right up there with Sam Cooke and Jeff Buckley as otherworldly instruments of pure expression. The most spine-tingling moment came at the end of the set when Case closed with “This Tornado Loves You,” her voice lifting from the litany of repeated refrains to demand, “What will make you believe me?” Even in the cheap seats, believers were in ample supply.

Setlist:
"Maybe Sparrow"
"People Got A Lotta Nerve"
"Fever"
"Hold On, Hold On"
"The Pharaohs"
"Middle Cyclone"
"Deep Red Bells"
"I Wish I Was The Moon"
"I’m An Animal"
"Prison Girls"
"The Tigers Have Spoken"
"Margaret Vs. Pauline"
"Red Tide"
"Don’t Forget Me"
"That Teenage Feeling"
"This Tornado Loves You" (w/ Crooked Fingers)

Encore:
"Vengeance Is Sleeping"
"Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth"
"Magpie To The Morning"
"Knock Loud"