Opening tonight’s show is one half of French electronic duo Appaloosa. Frontwoman Anne Laure enters the stage alone, explaining that her male counterpart couldn’t make it to the show, but not explaining why. Laure’s accompaniment comes solely from a cd player on stage, which she controls herself. While her bouncy backing tracks are enjoyable, most of the time, it’s hard to say the same for Laure who spends most of the set pacing around the stage and looking at the ground. Perhaps she’s lacking the chemistry that would normally exist with her bandmate present. The set does take a turn for the better when Laure invites audience members to dance on stage. It does, however, seem that the invitation would have been better reserved for the end of the set, as after a handful of songs, said audience members are standing still on the stage looking extremely awkward. Oh well.

Brisbane favourites I Heart Hiroshima are next, putting a considerably higher amount of energy into their set. Drummer Susie Patten provides the audience with her usual brand of awkward, entertaining banter while guitarists Matt Somers and Cameron Hawes elect to confine their vocals to their usual yells and yelps during the songs. Red Hands is an excellent addition to the set, while crowd favourite London in Love goes down a treat. I Heart Hiroshima’s 45-minute playing time seems to be a perfect length in that most of the crowd seem to enjoy the bulk of their set, but start to get a little restless just at the end. As always, the vocal interplay between Somers and Patten is the set’s highlight and the songs where this is more prevalent are always the most enjoyable (single Punks and Crime being prime examples). Realizing who the bulk of the audience came to see, Patten thanks the audience for watching their set and with her bandmates, makes a quick, subtle exit.

When describing the track record of Chan Marshall (more commonly known as Cat Power) for live shows, words like ‘unpredictable’, ‘inconsistent’, and ‘chaotic’ come to mind. Marshall has a history of alcohol abuse and coupled with the mixed reports of her last Australian tour (on which she opened for Nick Cave), it’s difficult to know what to expect from tonight’s set. Marshall, however, effortlessly takes the stage in a fashionably late manner to thunderous applause. Opening with a low-key cover of the Billie Holiday tune Don’t Explain that sounds every bit as gorgeous as she looks, Marshall makes it clear from the beginning that her days of erratic live shows have come to an end. The material from tonight’s set is drawn primarily from Marshall’s latest release Jukebox, the vast majority of which is covers from artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Janis Joplin and James Brown. Marshall handles every song with considerable grace, but of particular note in tonight’s set is Aretha, Sing One for Me which fuses beautiful upbeat chords with one of Marshall’s most soulful performances. Marshall’s Dirty Delta Blues band is just as, if not more impressive than Marshall herself. Consisting of Judah Bauer (of Blues Explosion fame) on guitar, Gregg Foreman ( Delta 72 ) on keyboards, Erik Paparazzi ( Lizard Music ) on bass and Australia’s own Jim White ( Dirty Three ), the group of musicians on stage tonight is considerably impressive. White is perhaps the most versatile and sensitive player onstage, adapting beautifully to whatever style is thrown at him. Of course, it’s Marshall who really sits in the limelight as performer.

The latter half of the set includes some absolutely beautiful renditions of Lived in Bars and the title track of 2005’s The Greatest. Some more long term fans are clearly hanging out for some older material and aside from a rendition of Moon Pix’s Metal Heart, they generally miss out. After nearly two hours, Marshall closes the set by staying on stage, imitating Australian accents and handing out flowers to various members of the crowd. No encore is necessary. While it would have been nice to have a set more inclusive of Marshall’s earlier career, it’s really difficult to fault a performance as emotional and sincere as the one that The Tivoli’s audience experienced tonight. Let’s hope to see Cat Power in Australia again sooner rather than later.