On the Tinymixtapes online forum, we were having a discussion of Cat Power's live show. Here's what one writer had to say of her performance last week, in reponse to someone who said he's seen shows where she either played two songs and run off the stage crying, or played a full set with her back to the crowd:

She played a full (~80-90 min.) set, facing the crowd, trading off between guitar and piano, and even engaging in a little bit of banter. Example: when at one point she couldn't figure out what to play, she was bombarded with about a dozen requests, so she chuckled "Okay" and sang a couple lines from "Freebird". I don't know about antidepressents, but at one point she said, "Does anyone have some scotch, maybe, with no ice," and she was presented with a flask from which she drank quite frequently for the rest of the show. There was no encore, but, you know, everybody was pretty much glad she didn't cry and run off the stage.

Perhaps her stage fright is improving?