Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert @ The United Theater on Broadway

Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert

@ The United Theater on Broadway

Los Angeles, CA Thursday March 7th 2024

Review by Alexander Laurence

Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, has released twelve albums over her more than thirty year career. Four albums feature cover songs. Only two albums of hers are all original songs, and many others feature at least one cover song. So it seems natural that Cat Power has covered completely this famous night of Bob Dylan in 1966.

Whereas Dylan handled vocals, acoustic guitar, and harmonica back in the day. Cat Power has a trio have a go at the acoustic songs. There is a guitar player and a harmonica player, which allows Chan Marshall to focus on the vocals. The songs are deconstructed and put back together again. This is not the folk 1960s. The Newport Folk Festival scene is a thing of the past. This is the modern era where one artist pays tribute to another one, at album length.

When Cat Power comes out it is very stark. The audience is mostly people in their 40s who looked liked they came directly from Frieze Los Angeles from the previous weekend. They are seated and quiet and polite. A few local bands are in the audience. This first part is focused and somber. Some longer songs like “Visions of Johanna” and “Desolation Row” make up most of this first part. After four songs in, the effect is quite hypnotic. When Cat Power sings the line “And Madonna, she still has not showed” in the song Visions of Johanna, I am reminded that most people preferred this show to seeing Madonna herself playing the Forum in LA at her five show residency.

Cat Power recreated this night in London at Royal Albert Hall in November 2022. She has released a live album of the night, and has been touring this set for over a year. Many Dylan fans and Cat Power fans were in attendance. In Dylan lore, this is the concert that included the “Judas” moment and Dylan going electric. Nowadays, it’s not much of a shocker. Dylan has been electric for many years. And Cat Power comes off more as a Billie Holiday or Nina Simone trying to interpret the songs of Dylan, rather than imitating Bob Dylan himself.

By the second half the whole band joins Chan Marshall and they rock out in the second half. Some of the better songs are “Ton Thumb’s Blues” and “Ballad of A Thin Man.” Chan drank a lot of water and tea during the show, but no bathroom break. By the closing number everyone in the audience is on their feet, singing along with Cat Power to “Like A Rolling Stone.” The effect is elevated, more like conceptual art than rock and roll. The whole concert makes me want to revisit both Cat Power and Dylan records. This was overall an elegant night of music.