"God bless Mr. James Brown," intones Chan Marshall, a/k/a Cat Power, on Friday night, from the remarkably dimly lit Apollo stage, in a rare moment of semi-casual discourse before her crack four-man backing crew, a/k/a Dirty Delta Blues, launches into the Godfather's "Lost Someone." Let us acknowledge up-front that "Dirty Delta Blues" is a pretty severe eye-roller as far as band names go; that they're now evoking a sort of Southern-fried indie-rock version of Star Time live at the Apollo is potentially disastrous. Chan prefers to ditch the mic stand entirely, loom somewhat ominously over the edge of the stage, and slowly lope from one side to the other via a gangly, rubber-limbed strutting shuffle, like a narcotized rapper, as though trying to do the Kristen Wiig impression of her before Kristen Wiig even gets the chance. Her frail voice blows breathy, noir-ish smoke rings, every moaned vowel another trial to be borne. She sounds credibly aggrieved. To note that she lacks the irascible spark, the tortured howls, the impeccably histrionic showmanship of James Brown himself is neither surprising nor terribly fair, it's true, but then again, she picked the venue and... More >>>