Cate Le Bon at Meow
For many of us in the Wellington crowd seeing Cate Le Bon and her band play on 4 June would have been the first international act we’d seen since the pandemic began in 2019.
And there were subtle signs, I might be speaking alone, but for an audience 80% Doc Martened, sleek slip on shoes of three of the band members stood out, as if we were seeing what cool people were wearing “on the outside”.
Another couple of girls next to me kept giggling “they look so Welsh!” during soundcheck, as if they were Martians. Although speaking as a Wellington migrant (of Welsh lineage) I can confidently say that Cate Le Bon and her full four-piece band looked nothing like my dad or uncles.
Support act Vera Allen played what a friend aptly described as “music Cat from 10 Things I’d Hate About You would listen to you” — to which I replied “I think that’s a good thing?”. Especially memorable was the primal scream inserts in It’s Your Birthday waking up the crowd proper.
Vera Ellen’s bass player said it himself, he was excited to see Cate play accompanied this time as opposed to her last Wellington gig as a solo artist. This elicited a muted reaction, the very idea of gigs from the past shunted to the back of our collective memories, I again blame thison the naturally dumbfounded state of a crowd bereft of outside cultural influence for nearly 3 years.
Before you knew it though the modest venue was packed beyond what would initially seem possible, ready to welcome sacred visitors from Overseas.
Cate’s latest offerings making up the bulk of the setlist do indeed have an ethereal air to them. The building synths and creeping funk underlying tunes like Miami and Pompeii alongside the lesser known new tracks keeping the crowd happily bopping.
I was glad to hear the set begin however with Dirt and French Boys, two stand out tracks for me from the latest album (Pompeii). Cate has the gravitas of a mainstay on the scene, appearing and performing nonetheless with masterful dignity some of the most devastating lyrics I’ve heard in recent years. Even “faces like lakes” (French Boys) is a Carlos Williams-esque short poem in itself.
Hemmed in at the front we were as transfixed as it’s possible to be (with the now unusual sensation of strangers in close proximity). The only moment which seemed to break the fourth wall was noticing Cate linger on her knees during the build up to Home To You, a teasing frolic of a song from 2019’s Reward, still clearly a crowd pleaser.
There was tension from the band already expressed and due to some unnamed fuck up courtesy of Quantas airlines (as if jetlag wouldn’t have been bad enough). But certainly something raw was tied to Cate coming from performing Home to You to this kiwi crowd.
At least one gent shouted out repeatedly how much we all loved Cate that night and in her valleys twinged response she in turn delighted the Cymraegphiles around me.
Ending on a twin encore set of Sad Nudes (Reward) and the rocksteady hit -Are You With Me Now (Mug Museum) — it’s safe to say we definitely were Cate.
