By Chloe Ivy-Curwen

I arrived at the Paramount theater on February 20th, it was cold and dark, but not raining. This was my first time at a concert alone, and I’m so grateful that it was to see Cat power performing her album The Greatest.

My introduction to Cat Power would be where most people know her from, which is the movie JUNO. “Sea of Love” starts to play as Michael Cera’s character ( Paulie Bleaker) settles in alongside Elliot Page’s character Juno after she has given birth. The first few notes always get me, and most of the time I immediately have to turn the song off to not induce sobbing. To me, this song always felt like hugging your mom. That memory of when you used to lay your head on her belly, and because you were so little your head would move up and down as she breathed in and out. Hearing your mom’s heartbeat muffling the sounds of whatever family get together you were at. 

I was a moody teenager, so I listened to this song a lot. However, I never really expanded past the album that Sea of Love was on, and I mostly listened to it on the Juno soundtrack CD I had in my car. At least, not until my senior year of high school. My at-the-time best friend sent me a link to Cat Power’s album “Jukebox”, and said something along the lines of “wow. Never realized how good this was”, and I think my response was something about how I had always loved Cat Power, and that my friend should listen to more of her music because she was so good. I used to lie a lot to seem like I knew more than I did. To show that I really loved Cat Power, I decided to listen to as many albums of hers as I could. Because of how deeply I adored “Sea of Love”, I should’ve known that I would fall in love with her music. Mainly two albums stuck with me past this pretentious attempt to seem cool, and one of them was The Greatest. 

So now you can imagine my excitement to hear that Cat Power was coming to Seattle to perform her album The Greatest in its entirety, and that I had the opportunity to see the performance.

To go back to that night, it was my first time at the Paramount, and it was incredible! Sparkling gold decor along the high ceilings, large chandeliers and a little lit up sign for the bar. People looking down from the second level, and a beautiful red, soft, carpeted floor. The energy in the front room was buzzing and warm, filled with the most perfect atmospheric light and people in line for merchandise. When I decided to find my seat, I was even more astonished, as the theater itself was spectacular. 

As the lights dimmed, and the band walked out on stage, the crowd rose to welcome them with applause. With the first song, “The Greatest”, the room went silent. There was this feeling in the air, like we were all leaning in to hear the words being spoken. The dark room with small lights on stage only enhanced this intimate feeling coming from the music being played. Her voice floated in the grandness of the room, the piano and guitar slowly following the words. To hear this album live was an amazing experience, but to me, it sounded almost exactly how the studio recordings sound. This isn’t t a bad thing at all, and if anything it speaks to the music that Cat Power releases. To put on a pair of headphones and listen to The Greatest, you get the same feelings of intimacy, longing, and aching from her voice and the instrumentals that are only exemplified when you get to hear it live. I’d say the only difference from the studio recording was the realness of her voice. You could hear and almost feel every breath she took. And it felt like we were all sitting and breathing with her. 

After the song “Willie”, the air was broken with a yell from the crowd “I love you!”. She smiled and earnestly responded “I love you too. I wouldn’t be here without you”. And then, she followed with “Where is my love”. This song opens with nothing other than her voice. Almost like she was continuing the conversation with that audience member. I felt like I was asking that same question. Her performance of that song was so tender and emotional, like she was gently holding each lyric she sang, and kindly giving them to the audience to feel for ourselves. 

After the album had been played in its entirety, she played around four more songs. Some covers, some devoted to people who might’ve been there and then to the people who were no longer there. I specifically remember the last lyrics that she sang. They echoed through the audience, “I’ll be looking at the moon… I’ll be seeing you”. The room erupt with a standing ovation. While calm and quiet during the entirety of the show, the crowd continued standing and cheering for a very, very long time. At this point I was standing along with the rest of the crowd, giving my all while cheering. When there was air for her to speak, she said “Fuck the man, fuck the power, take it easy, go slow, be late, remember it’s your life. Thank you so much”. If I wasn’t crying before this moment, there were definitely tears in my eyes now. 

I’m so grateful that I got to spend this night with Cat Power at the Paramount. I even remember my therapist telling me earlier in the day to embrace the slowness of a no-photo show, to completely immerse myself in the music and truly feel it. If I hadn’t already come to the show with that purpose, the music itself would’ve carried me along that same journey anyway. It was a wonderful night of feeling, slowing down, and it was just what I needed.