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vovat
Beth and I saw Neko Case twice last week, at White Eagle Hall in Jersey City on Tuesday, and Brooklyn Steel on Thursday. Neither place was that convenient to get to, and both were standing room only. The thing is, I believe the last few times we saw Neko, which admittedly were a few years ago, pre-pandemic, they were at seated venues. I guess she has to take what she can get. Getting home from Jersey City was particularly annoying, as the PATH trains run very rarely at night. I'm not entirely sure, but I think this might have been the first time we saw her live without Jon Rauhouse being part of the band. Carl Newman, Paul Rigby, Joe Seiders (mostly on drums, but on accordion for a few songs), and Nora O'Connor were all in it, though. We had seen Nora perform with Kelly Hogan a long time ago at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia. The setlists at both shows were pretty similar, although there were a few differences, with the Tuesday show being slightly longer. "I Wish I Was the Moon" was the closing song at the first, and the opening one at the second. Thursday was actually Neko's birthday, and she did acknowledge it. She said something about preferring her fifties to her forties. I suppose I'll find out about that eventually. I always like her banter during shows; she seems to mostly just say whatever comes to mind. She mentioned that "Favorite" was the first song she wrote on guitar, and "Maybe Sparrow" the first one she and Paul wrote together. She had recently put out a collection, which I think is mostly already released stuff, although there's one new song on it, "Oh, Shadowless," that she did at both shows, playing the drum during one part of it. Beth has recently really gotten into Sparks, so she was excited that "Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth" was part of both sets. Neko doesn't like people taking pictures at concerts, so I didn't. I will, however, say that she wore her skeleton pants at both shows. I'd heard of these before, but I don't think I'd seen them in person before this. She wore a skeleton outfit in a Maow video back in 1996, but I don't think it's the same; she says she bought the pants for three dollars at a Halloween store. This picture is from 2017.
