Concert Review: Cate Le Bon – Whammy Bar February 23, 2019

Western Springs wasn’t the only Auckland venue to be sold out last night, Whammy Bar was packed to the rafters with fans eager to hear Welsh songstress Cate Le Bon.

In retrospect, it may not have been the ideal venue for a singer whose songs seem to float out into the ether. When Le Bon took the stage she was both difficult to hear and see.

Being seated at an electric piano made her almost invisible to anyone not directly in front of the stage, and, this being a Saturday night, there was a certain amount of crowd chatter that was particularly distracting if you were anywhere near the bar.

So, I can tell you that Cate did take the stage around 10pm, but I can’t tell you what she was singing as I, being somewhat tall, planted myself near the back of the crowd.  When it became clear that I wasn’t going to get much of a chance to enjoy here where I was, I managed to get myself closer to the stage, where, by now, she was serenading us with Love Is Not Love, from her 2016 album, Crab Day.

“My name is Cate and this is my dear friend, JT (John Thomas),” she informed us, “we’ve come from a land far away to be with you”.

Then, with Thomas on synth, she treated us to a bewitching tune, that I didn’t recognize.

With a new album due out in April, there were several unfamiliar songs in the short, 10-song set including one I believe was titled “I Love You”, which followed.

Then it was back to Crab Day and What’s Not Mine, which showcased Le Bon vocal range, sounding at times like another Kate…Bush.

Much as I enjoyed her own songs, I think her cover of Paul McCartney’s Waterfalls was the highlight of the night for me.  Before she sang it, Cate noted the “sage advice within its lyric”. (You can hear Paul’s version on his McCartney II album).

Forty-five minutes after it started, she was finished, with the final words to Mug Museum drifting off into the night. By this time I barely noticed the several hundred other people in the room as I was completely under her spell.

Marty Duda