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Portland Mercury

Cate Le Bon doesn’t reveal much when she performs live. Throughout her otherworldly performance at the Doug Fir Lounge this past Friday, she surveyed the audience with a thousand-yard stare and a stoic expression. The only indication that the music was having any effect on her was when she would lightly tap on her chest in time with the beat. And when she sang, she pulled her arms close to her, often jutting her left elbow out directly toward the sold-out crowd as if to keep them at bay.

The truth is that Le Bon has already revealed so much of herself to the world through her five albums, particularly through her latest masterwork Reward. On that record, the 36-year-old reflects on broken relationships, jealousy, loss, and her feelings about the city of Miami with language that's both direct and impressionistic. If you weren’t picking up what she was putting down through these artful pop tunes, you weren’t paying attention.

Not that that was a concern for anyone in the confines of the sold-out Doug Fir; they were on board from the first notes of her opening song, “Miami,” and didn’t shift focus until Le Bon and her airtight quintet had vanished as the final notes of “Meet the Man” faded away. With the band switching instruments frequently to fill out the sound with saxophones, xylophone, synths, and percussion, the set took all 10 songs from Reward, as well as a handful from previous LPs, and rebuilt them from their playful, sometimes uneasy beginnings into serious groovers of minimalist R&B and fragmented post-punk.

Le Bon, instead, held steady to the Nico-like flat affect she brought to Reward, at times punctuated by a brief yelping tone between verses. The feeling of those vocals, on record and in concert, has often felt purposeful—a way for listeners to write themselves into the margins of these songs or to mentally rewrite them so they more accurately reflect their own experiences. Like all great songs, it is a gift that Le Bon offers to help others more fully understand their heartbreak, anguish, and defiant survival.

That also extended to the way the entire evening was presented. The show began with a half-hour set of electronic noise and drone from LA-based artist Conscious Summary, who wisely paired his formless, challenging music with a film projected on a screen next to him. It served almost like a sage burning, clearing the air of any drunken Friday night vibes and dull expectations. When Le Bon and her band were on stage, they were bathed in red light the entire time. Anything more would have felt manipulative, or at least ostentatious. We had to take the music as it was: plain, hot, and rich with emotion.