SLCene Suggests: Neko Case at Red Butte Garden

NEKO CASE, RED BUTTE GARDEN, Monday, Sept. 16, 7 p.m., $40

If you ask me, you need to have at least the amount of talent Neko Case boasts to get away with a wordy album title like her new one. The Worse It Gets, The Harder I Fight. The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You is a mouthful for sure, and the collection itself is joyfully overstuffed with entrancing musical ideas from Case and her incredible set of collaborators. Besides the usual suspects that will surely join her Monday night at her show, like Jon Rauhouse and Kelly Hogan, Case is joined by members of Calexico, My Morning Jacket, Los Lobos, Mudhoney and more, infusing her twang-rock base with some experimental bursts of noise and atmospheric excursions. None of it takes away from that incredible voice, though; Case possesses a mesmerizing instrument that hasn’t weakened a bit in the dozen or so years I’ve been listening to her. And in concert, it rings through the air with a clarity few of her peers can boast. Consider the last Red Butte Garden show of the summer a must-see. Pickwick opens the show.