Man, best show ever, or near enough not to matter. Neko brought her whole band, and when she started singing the first song, "Wayfaring Stranger", it was almost hard to believe that she was actually singing live, so rich, clear and expressive was her voice (sounding even better with the slight reverb effect that was being applied to it). In fact, for the whole show, I was amazed by what a great singer she is - I already knew this, of course, but it's different again, not to mention a bit spine-tingling, when someone is doing it right in front of you, never mind backed by a fantastic four-piece band right at the top of its game (lots of fiery banjo work in particular) and with Kelly Hogan on backing vocals right beside her.
She played most of Fox Confessor and drew most of the rest of her material from Tigers (including both "If You Knew" and "Soulful Shade Of Blue", though no "Train From Kansas City" alas - one of the few omissions that I'd have particularly liked to hear), Blacklisted (pulling out the big show-stopping torch numbers "I Wish I Was The Moon", "Runnin' Out Of Fools" and "Look For Me (I'll Be Around)" and doing a great version of "Deep Red Bells") and the Canadian Amp ep ("Favorite" was the second song up), also throwing in a cover of Dylan's "Buckets Of Rain". The show didn't flag at all at any point, and there were too many highlights to enumerate...it really was just grand.
It was pretty hot last night, and she'd sold out the venue, so there was a real buzz around beforehand; around me, people were talking about Lisa Miller and the Harvest Festival. I got the strong impression that the crowd was really there for the music - along with the younger 'uns like myself, there were a fair few relative oldies, but everyone knew the songs and the reception was pretty rapturous, to the point of demanding no less than three encores (the last being comprised solely of "In California", which she said was the only song they had left), something I've never seen before. It all made me so happy.
