It was with much pleasure and absolute reckless abandon that I would throw myself into seeing as much of the Neko Case tour as possible. First with the Spanish Club showcase the previous night – which gave me my first ever live glimpse of this truly impressive and uncomplicated but professional female performer who has a vocal range to shake the best of the best female country/folk starlets in the world – easily nudging out people like Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris with a brand of twang which recalled Loretta Lynn on a surf safari bender with all its associated twang.

As the last of the packed crowd moved into the Prince band room to settle before the storm, I found myself in a prime position at stage left – a perfect vantage point to take in the show and lose myself in not only Case’s but the entire band’s musical performance. Case appeared quickly after support Jon Langford walked from the stage and delved hands on into the process of sorting through the gear and setting up her acoustic and electric tenor guitars and microphone – I had a sense that no one knew that it was actually Case as not a dull roar went up when she appeared.

Kicking the night off with ‘Widow’s Toast’ and material from her solo debut Furnace Room Lullaby, ‘Canadian Amp’, and ‘Blacklisted’ (with some crowd favourites including the howling country soul of ‘Deep Red Bells’), Case sung like a bird and was ably supported by not only a hell of a back up singer in Kelly Hogan, but a comic sparring partner as well, with the two women exchanging some pretty witty and ad libbed banter which ranged from the hilarious to the absurd to some evenly heated moments with the two girls playfully engaging in some kind of pseudo porno dialogue; complete with soundtrack as the drums dropped in and the banjo provided the string section – hot stuff here!

Back to the band, and Case had assembled some fine musicians ranging from the aforementioned Hogan to Jon Rauhouse on the ‘porno twang’ banjo and ridiculously intoxicating pedal steel/Hawaiian guitars, to the smooth as silk guitar of Dave Graney lookalike Paul Rigby who moved seamlessly between 12 string electric guitars, and was complemented rhythmically by some of the best drum and bass I’ve heard in years with Tom V. Ray on the upright bass working the grove together with the drums – no mean feat considering that the rhythm section during Case’s ‘Fox Confessor Brings the Flood’ recording utilised the genius of Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino as well as some special keyboard magic touches by The Bands’ Garth Hudson.

As a live unit, Case and her band took me away to special places, with my attention fixed to the sound in which they were creating – at once delicate, energetic, filled with humour and good natured banter, particularly between Rauhouse, Hogan and Case whose music would combine as a singular unit to completely blow me away into another stratosphere. I’ve heard that Case doesn’t like the alt-country tag and its fair enough as well – as this bird don’t adhere to any genre at all – she plays by her own rules and is creating some of the best music of her career to date.