Saw Gotham wunderkind chanteuse Nellie McKay, in a neurotic, under-rehearsed set at the Roxy last night. She seemed a bit flustered at the start of the set that the piano was set up such that she couldn't see 1/3 of the audience (which she soon rectified), she didn't like her dress, and she hates Sunset boulevard -- all, in fact, perfectly valid concerns. She went on to do a lot of complaining, about how she doesn't like practicing or performing (uh, then why are you wasting your time, Nellie, and more importantly mine?) and apparently hates white men in business suits (which is why she's hitched her wagon to the ethnically diverse anarchists over at the Sony Corporation).
She was somewhat charming in a bundle-of-neuroses sort of way, and when she was performing most of the tunes from her debut record, she was a compelling performer (needing a bit of lyrical help from the audience only on the "Waiter" song) -- and downright affecting on the somber, introspective "Really."
However, she also performed a great deal of new material, which she wasn't too familiar with, leading her to stop and start in the middle of tunes, frequently detouring into political rants before continuing. I'm as big a fan of the political rant as anyone, but Nellie's all of 19 or 20 years old. I don't have much interest in the political opinions of someone who can't even order a drink in the bar she's playing in, especially one who decided to go vegan in the middle of a trip to France. Of the new material, the highlight was her imagined duet with Bob Dylan, with her supplying both her own and Mr. Zimmerman's voice. The least favorite was some show tune or other sung in German.
The setup was just her alone at the piano; while she clearly has a strong classical background, she's also clearly pretty rusty, and not really much of an improviser. She stumbled over her parts, her timing was off, she was having to read the new material from charts -- all things that seem a bit much for someone at her level. (She did acknowledge this in a self-deprecating manner, saying "It's so nice to be hosting this songwriting workshop where there's no pressure from people having to pay to see you." Tickets were actually $18-24, with drinks around $9.) She, and the audience, would be better served by hiring a band around her.
It seems to me she may have been spoiled with too much early success, and may take the platform she has for granted. If you're lucky enough to have a great room like the Roxy sold out on a Sunday night, you have an obligation to Mach Schau, as the Beatles were instructed in Hamburg when they were around Nellie's age.
I did overall enjoy the show; I was just disappointed that a little more effort wasn't put into it. I think I'll wait and check back in on Nellie, if she's still around, sometime in the next decade, after she's matured a bit as a person and performer.
Frank Bob says Five stars out of Ten. Check her out if you're a fan, and it's cheap.
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