Concert Recap: Neko Case at Liberty Hall / Halloween Pick of the Day: Edgar Allen Poe Dance Party at Castle Tea Room!

With a voice like Neko's, you can fucking OWN an audience, and last night she--along with hilarious harmonizing companion Kelly Hogan and a rock-solid backing band--held a (more than) packed house at Liberty Hall rapt for a 90-ish minute set.   

Here are ten highlights, musical and otherwise:

--an absolutely spine-chilling version of  "Set Out Running" (one of our older favorites--from Furnace Room Lullaby--in a set that naturally leaned heavier on the three more recent albums).

--a running joke about Neko's "slippery pants" (Neko: "That was my nickname in high-school").

--a nearly show-stopping mid-set version of "Deep Red Bells." (another older favorite)

--a long discussion of Motley Crue with specific attention paid to Tommy Lee's penis

--a stellar, impossibly catchy version of "Night Still Comes" from the new album:  "Catch a, catch a, catch a, catch a falling star...But wash your hands of it."

--Neko shouting this lyric (probably our favorite from the new album) :  "If I'm dipshit drunk on pink perfume, then I am the man in the fucking moon!"

--Kelly Hogan screwing up the chorus to "I'm a Man" because she had a flea in her hair.

--a man in the balcony who screamed through the entirety of one song (he was either crazy or got himself an old-fashioned dose of the holy spirit).

--Neko praising the devoted audience and bestowing a new nickname on the state:  "Sexy-ass Kansas."

--opener Jeremy Messersmith's song "Merch Girl" (plus another song that rhymed "minivan" and "one-night stand").

Critiques:

--When Kelly Hogan is in the house, it always feels like a shame not to hear a few of her own (terrific) songs.

--As much as we love the last two songs of the encore ("I Wish I Was the Moon" and "Margaret vs Pauline"), the set probably should have ended with "Ragtime," from the new album, which is about as good a set closer as is possible to imagine when Neko howls those last two powerful lines:

"I'll reveal myself when I'm ready,
I'll reveal myself invincible soon."


Verdict:  

Four out of four Free State Octoberfest beers (actually, three out of four..but only because Liberty ran out of Octoberfest before the set ended.


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With Halloween approaching, we need to amp up our coverage of spooky local events.  Let's start with an odd one:  a dance performance of Edgar Allen Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" by LFK's Arts In Motion Dance Company at the Castle Tea Room:

"Audience members will travel through the castle encountering a new dance in each of seven rooms as the famous Edgar Allen Poe story unfolds."

What??

More details here.  Looks like there are three performances each night this Thursday and Friday.

Chip:  "This is truly the stuff of nightmares for me.  I have a recurring dream where I'm lost in a house and in each room I keep encountering a fucking...ballet or something."