November 29, 2007
I hope you had the opportunity to make some new friends," said Nellie McKay, apologizing for the hour-long wait before she took the stage at Turner Hall Ballroom on Monday night. But it was the British-born, New York City-based songwriter-performer who made new friends, winning over the crowd with her vast vocal range and diverse stylings ranging from jazz to rap, pop to cabaret.
You name it, McKay does it, but in her own very quirky, idiosyncratic way. Armed with a Steinway piano and a ukulele, the 25-year-old McKay (pronounced Mc-EYE) commanded the stage from the start of her 85-minute set with witty songwriting that underscored her talent as a musician and singernot to mention her natural-born comedic instinct.
Dressed in a bright pink chiffon dress with silver sequin shoes, McKay was born to perform, armed with a natural charisma and a mastery of the keyboards, be it a jazzy riff or sentimental melody. With songs poking fun at feminists ("Mother of Pearl") and threatening violence to a significant other in the sweetest way possible ("Won't U Please B Nice"), McKay's zany outlook makes the strangest ideas appear perfectly plausible. "Sometimes when we play ["Won't U Please B Nice"] down South, they really like it. And it worries me," she said seriously, eliciting howls of laughter.
It's easy to see why she was cast in the recent Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera. Her acting abilities were literally at their height when she stood at the microphone stand, flailing her arms like a zombie, singingwhat else?"Zombie" from her most recent CD, Obligatory Villagers.
McKay is that truly rare breed of performer who is completely natural on stage, performing "in the moment," mistakes and all. What she does from one moment to the next? Well, not even Nellie McKay knows. You just have to pay attention.
|
|
