Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert

Concert Hall, QPAC

12th March 2025

 

Dr Gemma Regan

 

The Queen of Sadcore’s lacklustre and husky massacre of Dylan’s lyrics were indiscernible and possibly why she chose to hide in the shadows!

 

James Mangold’s eighth Oscar-nominated film, A Complete Unknown, about the young life of Bob Dylan starring Timothée Chalamet, has re-invigorated his popularity, leading to a packed concert hall at the QPAC in Brisbane. 

 

The 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert is a milestone in rock music and a seminal point in Bob Dylan’s career, where he transitioned from his popular protest folk acoustics to the electric rock genre. After almost 59 years, the legendary concert lives on, infamous for a restless jeering audience yelling “Judas” before the last song, Like a Rolling Stone and Dylan responding by instructing the band to “Play it f.ing loud!” 

 

The album is actually a mislabelled bootlegged recording from his 1966 concert at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in the UK. Cat Power (Chan Marshall) and her band repeated the historic concert, which had the potential to be amazing. However, the lyrics were inaudible, and her performance was lacklustre and almost in total darkness, so I wanted to scream out and jeer, which was reminiscent of the 1966 concert, desperate for her to stop!

 

The US-based Cat Power originated in 1992 in Atlanta, releasing eleven studio albums with them performing their first live album worldwide since Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert released in 2023. Perhaps she had a bad day, but delivering such iconic lyrics with a mistimed drawl was frustrating and confusing, and she besmirched such a gem! 

 

Three shadowy figures entered the dark stage, backlit with six bright lights that highlighted the audience's faces but threw no light on the performers. Without any ceremony, they opened with the acoustic set and She Belongs to Me. We could hear a guitar and some crooning interspersed with the mouth organ, but as to who the performers were, we were Blowing in the Wind! 

 

With little banter between each song, the packed QPAC concert hall was replete with whispers that no one could see the musicians. The frustration was palpable, but I’m sure that wasn’t the mood lighting they aimed for! We may as well have been sitting at home listening to the Cat Power album; we could see so little. At times, the figure seemed to be gesturing, but it could have been her hand in a sock puppet.

 

The six-piece band were good throughout, coming to the fore in the electric set to carry Marshall’s lacklustre and husky massacre of Dylan’s lyrics, which were indiscernible and possibly why she chose to hide in the shadows. Her album had reasonable reviews, so I can only assume her heart was not in it. It's a pity, considering Brisbane had just survived a horrific pummelling from Cyclone Alfred last week and was worthy of some uplifting escapism. 

 

Just before closing with Like a Rolling Stone, Marshall attempted some poor, disjointed repartee with the audience, exclaiming that she had six more minutes to fill before the last song. It was a further smack in the face as she rambled on about her attempt at being a comedian whilst audibly counting down the minutes until she could get off the stage under the ever-pervasive cloak of darkness. 

 

Some of the audience gave her a standing ovation as she slunk off the stage, still in darkness (possibly in relief that it was over), for which only the musicians were worthy. I’m sure the audience would have been less forgiving if Brisbane had not just survived another catastrophic natural disaster and were just relieved to have some normality! 

The “Queen of Sadcore” massacred Dylan’s controversial lyrics with her lacklustre enunciation and malaise, leaving the less familiar audience members in the dark as to their significance. Cat Power’s rehashing of Dylan’s iconic concert was a terrible injustice, sending fans to Desolation Row!