By Paul Robicheau

There was little doubt that the singer owned every note with a pure sense of conviction — and community — that blew past rock-star trappings.

Neko Case at the Wilbur. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Neko Case blew into the Wilbur on Thursday behind her first album in seven years — and her most richly evocative since 2006’s country-noir landmark Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. The robust, instantly identifiable vocalist self-produced the new Neon Grey Midnight Green – primarily recorded in her Vermont studio — as a love letter to musicians, and it included a chamber orchestra in its sweeping cast.

But Case took a modest approach onstage, supported by a five-piece band that lent a subtle ebb and flow to her music beneath a dim glow of constant copper-shaded stage lights that flattened any visual dynamics. The singer even joked that her plain cardigan sweater obscured an all-black “exciting tour outfit.”

The sound mix leaned to low volume as well. However, if the near-full audience at the Wilbur zeroed in on the music (perhaps even with eyes closed to let the sound blossom without a visual focus), its rewards were magnified. Although the stripped-down band couldn’t reproduce the strings-swept scope of Neon Grey Midnight Green, nine of that record’s 12 tracks stood out across a smartly curated 23-song, 90-minute set that was also highlighted by four selections from Fox Confessor.

The first half of the set smoldered, touching on the singer’s inspirations from the natural world: killer whales, magpies, and (in the new gem “Little Gears”) a web-building spider, along with Case’s own metaphorical identifications as an animal – or a storm in the brisk shuffle “This Tornado Loves You.” Yet “Ragtime” stirred an invincible fanfare with vocals atop a wash of sound, and the new album opener “Destination” found keyboardist Adam Schatz providing a dash of orchestration before bassist Andrew McKeag strung melodic notes through its fading coda.

The mid-set also hit a sudden peak with “Oh, Shadowless,” the new track on the 2022 retrospective Wild Creatures. Initially flanked by acoustic guitars from Paul Rigby (who goes back to Fox Confessor and co-wrote many Neon Grey Midnight Green songs) and backing vocalist Nora O’Connor Kean, Case turned to wallop a floor tom with mallets while Schatz unleashed squealing tenor sax. And when that song slid into the swooning counterbalance of “That Teenage Feeling,” the singer bit into the back half of the song’s resolve “It’s hard” with a quavering high note.

A stretch of four songs from Neon Grey Midnight Green brought the show to its emotive, textural zenith, starting with “Rusty Mountain,” where Case sang “We all deserve better than a love song.” Drummer Kyle Crane’s clacking rimshots softly sparked “Match-Lit,” spread into Rigby’s ghostly electric twang and then closed with a quiet snatch of “Love is Strange,” a 1956 R&B hit for Mickey & Sylvia. They were favorites of the Sadies’ Dallas Good, one of Case’s several musical friends who died in recent years and provided the album with another purpose – in keeping with the remembrances in her new memoir The Harder I Fight the More I Love You.

Neko Case Photo: Ebru Yildiz

Title track “Neon Grey Midnight Green” built its own crescendos around Rigby’s rubbery chords until Case raged “I’m not your backdoor man! I’m not your oxeye daisy! Not your Listerine lady! Your girl!” in a cry against patriarchy. Schatz’s sax shifted the tone to album outlier “Tomboy Gold,” which came across more like a Beat-jazz palate cleanser than a seeming outtake from Fiona Apple’s last album, given Case’s trance-like musings, steeped in reverb. Next, as on record, “Wreck” barreled with fears around love’s disruptions, the singer declaring “I know I can’t burn this bright forever” and engaging in a wordless vocal weave with O’Connor Kean, who unobtrusively harmonized with Case’s clarion alto through the night.

The icing came in a Fox Confessor-tilted homestretch, starting with the set-closing waltz “Star Witness” (written after Case saw a gang shooting with a young victim), laced with her serpentine vocal glide around such phrases as “There’s such tender wolves round tonight” and a spectral final lament. The wistful “I Wish I Was the Moon” began the encore before the singer wielded her SG electric guitar to unveil the deep-chiming “Hold On, Hold On.” And after Case called on fans to recognize “being powerful and intelligent, with all the shitty things going on in the world,” she sealed her idea for “finding your people” with the strummed denouement of “At Last,” capped by the line “I own every bell that tolls me.”

To be honest, Case’s live shows generally don’t match the magical heights of her best records. But there was little doubt that the singer owned every note with a pure sense of conviction — and community — that blew past rock-star trappings.

Paul Robicheau served more than 20 years as contributing editor for music at the Improper Bostonian in addition to writing and photography for The Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He was also the founding arts editor of Boston Metro.