Cat Power, and Her Haunting Melancholy

Looking for the antithesis of slick pop glitz? She was at Fais Do-Do on Thursday in the person of Cat Power, the performing identity of singer-songwriter Chan Marshall.

Rather than relish the spotlight, this indie-rock cult hero seemed to want to melt into the crowd--and at one point she did, literally. Frustrated by the stage sound, she took her electric guitar and microphone stand down onto the floor and, enveloped by fans, performed in the dark for a few minutes.

It wasn’t really different when she was on the dimly lit stage, though. Her face hidden by her hair, she often stopped songs unfinished and was excessively apologetic for her shakiness.

As maddening as all that was, a remarkable depth of emotion and talent shone through. As a writer, the Southerner vividly taps the pains and fears that apparently manifested in her stage manner, and her stunningly haunting, melancholy voice and her minimalist piano and guitar playing provide the perfect vehicle. Think PJ Harvey without the poses, or Beth Orton without the beats.

Most arresting was how she personalized the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and the Dimitri Tiompkin-Ned Washington standard “Wild as the Wind,” songs generally associated with bravado and overripe sentiment, respectively. Previewing her upcoming “The Covers Record,” she crawled inside the songs and found dark corners of which even their writers may have been unaware.