“You can’t control these women,” k.d. lang said fondly of her bandmates, Neko Case and Laura Veirs. The newly christened beat combo, case/lang/veirs, was a force to be reckoned with Sunday at the Chicago Theatre.
Amid a few glancing and mostly darkly humorous references to current affairs, the trio built its music into a refuge and, occasionally, a weapon.
Though lang, Case and Veirs are all in the midst of successful solo careers, they have bonded as a band. Their 21-song set was not so much a hodge-podge of individual voices as a story with a beginning, middle and end that blended songs from their self-titled debut album, solo tracks and carefully chosen covers.
There were songs that celebrated music (“Song for Judee,” about the tragic folk singer Judee Sill, and “Best Kept Secret,” about an unsung session guitarist), the knee-buckling beauty of nature, geography, home (lang’s sensual reading of Neil Young’s “Helpless,” Case’s road reverie “Down I-5”), and womanhood (Case’s don’t-mess-with-me “Man,” the opening lines of “Atomic Number”: “I’m not the freckled maid/I’m not the fair-haired girl/I’m not a pail of milk for you to spoil”).
The individual voices retained their distinctive flair. With her Elvis Presley cheekbones and Roy Orbison-esque flair for operatic drama, lang smoldered on “Honey and Smoke.” The backing band drifted into near silence as she sang a lament for the unrequited in “Blue Fires,” shadowed only by the empathy of Case and Veirs, who turned her longing into a hymn.
Case, who points her chin toward the sky when she sings in a way that the late Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead would admire, delivered one knockout punch chorus after another – “Delirium,” “Man,” “Hold On, Hold On.” Veirs brought a mystical psychedelia to “Greens of June” and the haunting “Georgia Stars,” which morphed into a fierce, head-banging guitar blowout (by now, Lemmy would’ve been beaming).
The words that underlined much of the set came at the start with “Atomic Number,” in which all three singers shared equal time: “Why are the hopes and things/The ones we make obscene?” It was a question without an answer until the final two songs. The search for beauty and truth landed on Patti Smith’s “People Have the Power,” with the singers trading lines as if they were shouting through bullhorns at a rally.
What came next was much quieter but just as powerful. With its undulating guitars and twinkling melody, “I Want to Be Here” sounded almost innocent. But it was defiant too: “The hungry fools/Who rule the world can’t catch us/Surely they can’t ruin everything.” This was a power trio that knew it didn’t always have to shout to be heard.
case/lang/veirs set list Sunday at Chicago Theatre:
Atomic Number
Honey and Smoke
Song for Judee
Delirium
Blue Fires
Greens of June
Down I-5
1000 Miles Away
I Can See Your Tracks (Veirs)
Margaret vs. Pauline (Case)
Helpless (Neil Young cover)
Super Moon
July Flame (Veirs)
Sorrow Nevermore (lang)
Man (Case)
Georgia Stars
Encore:
Best Kept Secret
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Hold On, Hold On (Case)
Constant Craving (lang)
Encore 2:
People Have the Power (Patti Smith cover)
I Want To Be Here
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