Legendary alternative singer Cat Power opened her 2026 tour at White Oak Music Hall with a performance that traded polish for raw intimacy, as Chan Marshall delivered an emotionally stirring set including reflective banter and moments of gorgeous vulnerability.
Blue light washed over the faces packed into White Oak Music Hall, people stood waiting for Cat Power to take the stage for the opening night of her tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of her landmark 2006 album, The Greatest. With the recent news reports of the Trump Administration announcing the pullback of ICE from Minnesota, a tension hung over the fans from the venue’s wood-panelled ceiling. How would Cat Power, real name Chan Marshall, address the moment?
At 8:30pm, her band walked onto the stage, and the answer soon followed. Dressed in a fully white suit and with hair colored a bleach blonde, Cat Power appeared quietly as the fans erupted in applause. She calmly placed herself in the center of the stage behind her stand that held two vocal mics. As the opening chords of “The Greatest” rang throughout the venue she delivered a reserved yet intimate rendition which stayed faithful to the studio version. Halfway through the song the crowd was in full sway with her voice. As the swaggering drum opening of “Living Proof” kicked in, a collective reassurance fell over the crowd, she had finally arrived.
Before launching into her heart-shattering breakup song “Empty Shell”, Cat Power shared her inner reflections with the crowd about the song. Noting the importance of “Taking care of ourselves and getting through it to have a beautiful adulthood.” The sentiment was met with more loving remarks from the crowd.
Working with two mics in one hand, she followed with an even more stripped back version of “Where Is My Love.” Every line delivery from her sent a swirling question around the heads in the crowd, her voice lingering, searching, until the last note where her usually airy voice transformed into a distant wail, almost knowing that the song’s question won’t be answered. Contrasting the intimacy that was created in the room, the audience was soon transported to some place not of earth. Marshall delivered an ethereal rendition of “The Moon,” her voice coated in a sweet layer of autotune as she bent over her mic to sing the lines.
Ending her album, Chan began to address the audience about the tension every fan carried into the venue. “I know everything is harder this year than it was last year,” she said, but followed with, “All the bad shit is getting squeezed out.” Cat Power, not only an artist but activist for social causes such as immigration and the genocide occurring in Palestine, understands the weight of these issues.
No singular sentence could heal the systemic pain, she knows this, weighing in on her upbringing in church, “go help your neighbor, but I learned from moving around the world that life was not all like that.” Between softly dabbing herself with a white towel, several audience members wrapped their arms over each other’s shoulders. “It’s crazy how a hug can neutralize so much anxiety,” she said. Cat Power had turned the venue into her own church.
Chan shared her praises for post-punk band IDLES, saying, “It seems every 20 years I get a new favorite live-band,” before covering their song “The Beachland Ballroom”. The cover resulted in an open-mouthed gaze from the audience as Chan’s voice ached across the triumphant verses, transforming it into something of her own. She continued sharing her gratitude for what music has given her while introducing the closing song. “The gold record for this song hangs next to my toilet,” the audience laughed in response to her humbly downplaying the next song.
“Sea Of Love” closed out the night as Marshall’s voice delivered each line sweetly and unhurried. Then in an instant the final chords had rung and fizzled out of the venue, and all that was left was Marshall and the band on stage. Marshall took a step back from her mic stand and raised her arm to her brow in a salute to the crowd. There would be no encore – there was no need. Within two hours she had delivered what her audience needed: kindness and a soft honesty. Marshall had answered the question posed at the beginning of the night, not with a grand statement but with a simple truth: Love thy neighbor.
