Neko Case Concert Review: Bone-Shaking Vocals Blow Away Boston

Neko Case’s expansive and breathless voice filled The Wilbur Theatre in downtown Boston on Oct. 23 in a blazing homage to authenticity. Neko Case, on tour for her eighth solo album, knows she has no need to reinvent her style. Her performance was just as joyfully reminiscent of her old indie rock days as it was representative of her hopeful future, with consistently detailed, enigmatic, and punching lyrics.

The show in Boston was smack dab in the middle of her 33-show tour for her first self-produced album, “Neon Grey Midnight Green,” released in late September. Her tour strictly enforced a no recording, no phones policy. Whether the reason was for audience enjoyment or something else, not having to watch the performance through someone else’s phone screen — which happens at so many concerts — was a welcome blessing. Not feeling the temptation to record songs for family and friends ensured the show was exactly what it needed to be: a moment for now and now alone.

And it was. Effortlessly, it seemed, Case — with a full head of character-defining red hair flowing down her back — captivated the audience without really moving much at all away from the microphone. While her voice and lyrics were the star and center of the show, Case proved her instrumental skills as well, switching between shaking the tambourine and picking complicated rhythms on the guitar.

Under warm lights, Case took up the electric guitar for the fourth song of the set, “Deep Red Bells,” off her 2002 album “Blacklisted” — written about her experience growing up in Seattle during the active years of the Green River Serial killer, who was convicted of killing 49 women. The three separate guitars, riffing and strumming, along with the bass and keys created a gorgeous layering with nearly as much depth as the lyrics sung by Case’s vast voice that seemed to stretch for miles.

For a moment at the bridge, the music stopped, leaving only Case’s voice echoing:

“Where does this mean world cast its cold eye?/ Who’s left to suffer long about you?”

Then, she was rejoined with an ironic upbeat acoustic strumming as she sang, “Does your soul cast about like an old paper bag / Past empty lots and empty graves? / All those like you who lost their way / Murdered on the interstate / While the red bells rang like thunder.”

Despite the solo name, the band backing Case was essential in creating the rich sounds that drove the power of the set. At the end of the first song, “Bracing for Sunday,” Adam Schatz — who played the keys for most of the show — pulled out a saxophone for a multiple minute solo before the transition into the next song. Guitarists Paul Rigby and Nora O’Connor — who both also sang harmonies — along with Kyle Crane on drums, added their own individual flairs to the show, making Case’s solo act all the more wonderful for its indie rock sound.

Case first gained mass recognition as a vocalist in “Mass Romantic,” the power pop-esque first album by Canadian indie rock band The New Pornographers. In her mid-20s, she played the drums regularly in the punk rock scene of Vancouver. Since then, her music has taken up country and folk influences.

This performance proved a beautiful culmination of the best of her history.

All of it came through in her performance of “Oh, Shadowless,” a soft song about insomnia that takes an intense turn at the end of the chorus. All of the instruments got louder and more chaotic and Case banged up and down on a tom drum by her waist. Then a second later, she returned right back to the microphone, singing the soft sounds of the verse like nothing happened.

More than anything though, it was her wild range of vocals that brought about goosebumps — gorgeous in recording but even more breathtaking on stage. Her lyrics only added to her mystical energy, full of punching images and details that are anything but straightforward. The listener had to either work to interpret each lyric or relax and let the sentiments of the images rush over them.

For instance, during “Star Witness,” the last song of the show before an encore, Case sang grabbing and detailed lyrics that she wrote after witnessing a gang related shooting of a young Black man in Chicago.

The lyrics were given their deep meaning by the way her voice crescendoed in the chorus. “Hey there, there’s such tender wolves’ round the town tonight / Round the town tonight,” she sang. Every word at least hit one different note, if not more.

“Go on, go on and scream and cry / You’re miles from where anyone will find you / This is nothing new, no television crew / They don’t even put on the sirens / My nightgown sweeps the pavement / Please, don’t let him die.”

“Oh, how I forgot.”

—Staff writer Asher J. Montgomery can be reached at asher.montgomery@thecrimson.com.