Bobble Tiki thinks Neko Case secretly frustrates Tacoma. Bobble Tiki thinks that while most people in Tacoma with any musical sense can’t help but be taken by Case’s classic, captivating and road-weary vocal capabilities and songwriting skills, on some level this town wants a little more.

Bobble Tiki thinks Tacoma wants to claim Neko Case — who has quietly become, really and truly, one of the biggest names in the indie music world — as its own, but Case’s free spirit and un-caged nature won’t have it. Sure, Case claims Tacoma as her “hometown” — as even Wikipedia notes, but Tacoma wants more
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Case’s latest album, Middle Cyclone, demonstrates — once again — that Neko is a child of nowhere and a resident of everywhere. Though she grew up in T-town and has never shied away from those ties, in her heart Case is not a spirit one gritty town can contain. Wide open roads. Pickup trucks. Soulless bars. Lonely mornings — Neko Case lives in all these places. Her voice and depth have a way of filling the voids.

But Bobble Tiki thinks this town — long the butt of jokes and the mangy, balding, limping underdog — wants Neko Case to lift Tacoma up with her. Bobble Tiki thinks Tacoma secretly wants Neko Case to claim Tacoma every time she speaks, and play the Java Jive on every tour just because they heard a story about her tending bar there.

Bobble Tiki thinks, maybe deep down, there’s part of Tacoma that’s jealous of Case’s accolades and feels a little cheated every time they see her mouth moving or her actions speaking and it’s not trumpeting Tacoma.

Get over yourself, Tacoma. This is what Bobble Tiki says. Neko Case — to this day — may be more Tacoma than you’ll ever be, and she’s certainly paid any dues she owes this often sad little hole of ours.

Plus, she’s playing the Pantages Theater in Tacoma Tuesday. What more do you want?

[Pantages Theater, Tuesday, June 2, 8 p.m., $33, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.591.5890]