Cate Le Bon Brought Honest To Goodness Art Rock To Union Transfer

Women of the world, take over
Because if you don’t, the world will come to an end
And we haven’t got long
Women of the world, take over
Because if you don’t, the world will come to an end
And we haven’t got long
— Ivor Cutler & Linda Hurst, “Women of the World”

That’s how tonight’s show begins — with a dimming of the lights and a playback of the above Ivor Cutler track — and it is a perfect bit of scene-setting and contextualizing for this, the second night of Cate Le Bon’s Michaelangelo Dying US tour. 

The band is dressed mostly in white, there’s bits of gauze draped all over, and Le Bon walks out to applause, wearing a babooshka, but making it fashion. Launching into “Jerome,” the lead off track, the sound is instantly established — washed out guitars, treated sax, and that tight, metronomic rhythm section, all of it a bed for Le Bon’s clear, beguiling voice. Who else, I ask you, is out here making honest-to-goodness art rock in such good faith today?

There’s a Cate Le Bon sound, but it’s in a pretty constant state of evolution. Michelangelo Dying comes in at an interesting point in her career — it’s her seventh album, but also her first since truly coming into her own as a producer of other people’s records; in the last 4 years, she’s produced Devendra Banhart, Wilco, Horsegirl, Dry Cleaning and more, all to really interesting effect. As a producer, she’s making records that establish both a signature sound and a kind of economy of instruments. Michelangelo Dying has those qualities as well, but it’s also following a path she’s been taking as a songwriter, which feels like an evolution away from more linear songs — increasingly, they’re feeling like pieces.

On record, at least. The songs that feel the most watery, the most Cocteau Twins-circa-Victorialand on the LP have a lot more muscle performed live, and it’s nice to have both in the world. Stuff that nearly floats away on the LP comes to life onstage, evoking Siouxsie, The Cure, Eno, Cale — it’s hard not to talk about these gothmothers and gothfathers, but please do not misunderstand: This music isn’t retro, it’s very clearly a furtherance of that art rock idea or impulse or worldview. 

This is also the most soulful show of hers I have ever seen. Perhaps the going project for Cate Le Bon, mid career, is to find the soul in synths and pedals and how they all go with her compelling, one-of-a-kind voice. And it’s here now. You see and hear it in “Daylight Matters,” delivered as a dead cool anthem, no sweat broken, but impossible to pay attention to anything else.

And at the center of it all is Le Bon’s voice and stage presence. She’s got Cate Blanchett level of cool/panache/self- possession; she’s Lou and Laurie. Throughout the show, her right hand is often in the air, subtly conducting the band or maybe the audience; there’s something very Edith Piaf about it. It’s control; it’s mastery. I hope more people get into this. Like the song says, we haven’t got long.