#middle cyclone

Neko Case – Beacon Theatre – October 22, 2025

American singer-songwriter Neko Case has been a member of the New Pornographers and the supergroup Case/lang/veirs. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing her in both bands, but it’s her indelible mark as a solo artist that solidifies her place in the music canon. Propelled by her powerful voice, Case enthralls not only with vocals but also as a lyricist, spinning phrases like “Do I blaze freckles on your face?” (“Wreck”) to “This world eats pretty girls like peanuts” (“An Ice Age” ), both from her latest album, Neon Grey Midnight Green. Pitchfork agrees: “Case’s ambiguous phrases, long a confounding staple of her songwriting, coalesce on Neon Grey to form a coherent dream logic, the kind in which your limbs move at half-speed as a Mad Libs of the day’s events plays out beyond your control.” 

At the Beacon Theatre on Wednesday, Case filled the ornate space with her bombastic and ethereal vocals. Attendees were advised that photography and video during the performance was prohibited, setting the evening to a full rapturous attention. Opening with a battle cry, “Bracing for Sunday,” from 2013’s The Worst Things Get, the Harder We Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You, Case prefaced that the evening would be a mixture of old and new material. Barreling into an oldie, “People Got a Lotta Nerve,” from 2009’s Middle Cyclone, she banged and fluttered her tambourine. 

“Louise,” the first of many songs played from Neon Grey, continued the siren’s captivating spell on the room as the saxophonist added flourishes with its outro. Admitting it was probably “the most New York thing to say,” “Baby, I'm Not (A Werewolf)” was dedicated to Case’s therapist, who was in attendance. Throughout the night, the singer praised the venue and even recounted her first time playing the Beacon Theatre, opening for Nick Cave. Revealing a true rock and roll moment, there was a rather famous, old elevator where she once missed as Cave ascended and teased, “Too bad for you.”

The evening's back end was largely new material. However, a favorite of Case’s to sing from 2006’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, the waltz-y “That Teenage Feeling,” was dedicated to her longtime guitarist, Paul Rigby, before a parade of tracks from Neon Grey, including “Rusty Mountain,” the title track and opening single “Wreck” followed. The set concluded with a fan favorite, “Star Witness,” bookending the newer material with two favorites from the seminal 2006 album. An encore was inevitable, and Case treated longtime fans to a lullaby with “I Wish I Was the Moon,” off 2002’s Blacklisted, while adding two more from Fox Confessor, “Hold On, Hold On” and the fitting “At Last.” —Sharlene Chiu | @shar0ck

Last Night I Dreamt That I Hit A Deer With My Car

Come On Sorrow, Take Your Own Advice

Neko Case // “People Gotta Lotta Nerve,” from Middle Cyclone

So the saying says…an elephant never forgets.

My love I am the speed of sound

I left them motherless, fatherless

Their souls dangling inside out from their mouths

But it’s never enough