Neko Case @ The Casbah, 3.3.09

Yesterday I spent the whole afternoon at the Casbah, sending updates via Twitter about the status of the wristbands for the free Neko Case show. It was a really fun day though I'll say off the bat that I didn't meet Neko except for an awkward "We need to get in the office" exchange as I was coming out and some kinda random overheard conversations to the photographers from the tour manager. "Neko wants you to use flash. She's 38 and doesn't want to look it. She doesn't want weird shadows." They also announced (for the first time ever at the Casbah?) that there was no photography allowed.

Anyway, the show was fun by the time it finally happened and Neko Case sounded good inside the Casbah, though I opted to listen from the smoking patio (which was a non-smoking patio for the night at the request of Neko) and that worked just fine for me. I have to say that this was a fly in show and as such, the band had about 20 bags of luggage piled in the office. It shocked me that with all that crap, they didn't even bring CDs to sell on the day her album was released. Are you kidding me? Would you rather people download? I don't know, but seemed like a total missed opportunity.

We weren't allowed to take pictures (MySpace got the exclusive) but I can at least post what I got. So there's a picture of line of people waiting for wristbands at 3 pm, the setlist, some of the bands instruments, and a post-show photo.

















It was funny that the show ended so early because by the end of it all, it felt like a full night, but I made my way to the Soda Bar for Joel P West, Matt Curreri and Paddle Boat and made a good night even better.