Lucie Zhang/The Chronicle
When I added Cut Copy’s “Lights and Music” as one of my top 10 songs of 2008, I had made a statement that the song would be perfect for a house party or the big arena, even using the word “epic” to describe the song. Sure, it seemed silly to call the Australian electronic group epic among greats such as Bon Iver and TV on the Radio, whose music has a little more substance than four lines of simple lyrics and repetitive beats.
However, last night’s show at Cat’s Cradle reaffirmed all my faith in the group and proved once and for all why they deserve all the hype they receive. I have seen some great electronic shows at this venue, including Caribou and Ratatat, and Cut Copy takes the win for the most fun I’ve had there yet.
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Annuals are giving away museum tickets to Chapel Hill’s Ackland Museum of Art if you go to their Jan. 31 show at the Cradle. Art is music. Music is art. It’s all harmony. Check it out.
Mark Kozelek, and I quote, felt like he was “f-king 50 corpses” last night at the Cat’s Cradle. Such was his response to a small, low-energy and “uninspiring” Saturday night crowd in Carrboro.
Of course, such a line should come as no surprise to anyone who has seen the man behind Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon live. His songs, sad to say the least, are a strange counter-point to the performer on a stage. He heckles and mocks anyone he sees. Anyone going in the future should keep a buffer of a few people between themselves and the stage to avoid the wrath of Kozelek’s tongue. To a man with a Sun Kil Moon t-shirt in the front row, Kozelek said, “That’s creepy. Do you have a girlfriend?” insinuating the fan’s sexless life. Later on, he asked the same question to another man, also in the front row, who was taking notes on the show.
But perhaps Kozelek’s creepiest moment were a series of remarks to an 18-year-old girl front-row center who he thought was underage. Similarly, when Kozelek was at the Cradle in January, before playing “Cruiser” in the encore, he said “Some cute underage girl-I don’t even know how she got in here-came backstage before the show and gave me a collage that referenced ‘Cruiser.’”
But in spite of Kozelek’s stage demeanor, his set was par for the course for him (read: incredibly solid). Following folksy opener Kath Bloom, Kozelek played a wide variety of songs including the requisite Modest Mouse covers as well as covers of Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s “New Partner” and Judy Collins’ “Send in the Clowns.”
But it was Kozelek’s own work that was best. “Moorestown,” etc. showed Kozelek’s craft and his beautiful songwriting abilities. His encore, a triplet of requests, closed the show in a subdued manner in line with the rest of his set. And then Kozelek made his exit, away from North Carolina’s uninspiring corpses.
