Nellie McKay gets standing ovations even when she forgets the words
Nellie McKay launched her gig at Nighttown last night by rushing in just as her name was announced, weaving through the restaurant’s standing-room-only crowd to reach the piano. She took off her coat, apologized for the disheveled back of her head (she said it looked like a “before” commercial) and started to play.
That’s all it took for the jazz/pop/rap/whatever-the-hell-she-wants-to sing phenomenon to win hearts. McKay’s show, just like her music, is composed of incredible talent mixed with layers of irony — and, as she admits, you can never have too many of those…
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2008.
I was there Thursday as well. One may argue that she arrived late, was completely disheveled and so unprepared that she forgot the lyrics to her own songs. Simply put: Rude.
I am a HUGE Nellie fan and love the wit and attitude packed into her music and it took all night for me to be methodically disapointed, song by re-started song.
I was twenty feet away from her and struggled to hear on most songs. The sound was absolutely awful! Not Nellie’s fault, some drunk at the controls had to be yelled at by the crowd to turn on her ukulele mike after she started the song! Wake up Nighttown.