I saw Cat Power!

That's right, I was lucky enough to see one of my favorite bands of all time, Cat Power, at the Second annual Vegoose Music Festival in Las Vegas. Of course there were many other bands that I love who performed but it was Chan Marshall who blew me away the most.

I first discovered Chan (pronounced Shawn) after the release of her sixth album 'You Are Free' which I fell in love with quite quickly. When her latest album, 'The Greatest' hit stores in January, I was first in line to grab it. If you've have no idea what I'm talking about then I suggest you get your lazy butt to a music store and pick up her albums. She's like nothing you've ever heard, her haunting voice will stay in your mind forever.

My best friend Vivian and I ventured to Vegas in my little red truck all the way down to Vegas in an exhaustingg 10 hour trip (we went through Bishop and ended up in the middle of nowhere losing 45 minutes with nothing around but a flock of massive crows).

The festival was packed with folks in costume all bouncy and giddy for the exciting two day festival. Cat Power and The Memphis Rhythm Band played to a packed crowd around 1:30 pm on Saturday the 28th. Although her music consists of soft piano and slow jazzy guitar rifts with sometimes gloomy lyrics, her performance was cheerful and carefree.

Her performance on Saturday was completely different from some of her performances early on in her career.

At first Marshall was pretty timid and quiet, losing concentration pretty easily with horrible stage fright.

At Vegoose and many of her recent performances she's thrown away her fear and embraced her new joyful attitude. She hopped around stage, pantomiming her lyrics and waving at members of the crowd. Even during her most heartbreaking tunes she danced around jokingly. I swear she pointed at my hat and smiled, she has good taste!

She performed most of the songs from 'The Greatest' but also treated the audience with two songs from her 'Covers Record', her own unique twist on a group of popular songs. She played her gorgeous rendition of Jerry Miller's "Naked, If I Want To" and sent the crowd into a dancing frenzy with her sexy funk version of The Rolling Stones' '“Satisfaction'.

Although most of the bands that I saw at Vegoose gave heart stopping performances (Fiona Apple, The Raconteurs, Damien Marley, The Mars VoltaTom Petty, The Roots, Built to Spill and more!), Cat Power had me captivated her entire performance.

So go out and buy her albums, go see a show, do something and beware of falling in love.

The second and thrid photos are mine

2nd-Vivian Matta and Alexis Gray with Chan Marshall in the background

3rd-Chan Marshall of Cat Power at Vegoose