LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) - If
Macy Gray's show Wednesday (Jan. 30) night at the Knitting Factory in L.A. was a movie, it would be John Travolta's
Battlefield Earth: a much-hyped event, featuring a fading marquee-level star trying to regain his (presumably deserved) position atop the pop-culture throne, that ended in a complete and total debacle for all parties involved.
At least Gray came in under budget. Tickets for the show (the first of three semi-weekly Gray shows at the club) were a generous $10, a bargain when the club's 500-person-or-so capacity is taken into consideration. Add a surprise opening set from the forward-thinking hip-hop crew Black Eyed Peas, and you've got what amounts to a steal.
All that was really stolen was the audience's time. First, Black Eyed Peas took the stage at 10:15 p.m. and proceeded to play a quick, four-song set that was largely ignored by the packed crowd. Then, the audience waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And finally, at around midnight, Gray entered from the wings, clad in a sleek suede jacket and a leather bumpkin hat that obscured her face for her diminutive 25-minute set. When her band started playing, they launched into what could be best described as a reggae train wreck, miles away from the tight, horn-driven soul arrangements and breathy vocal harmonies that made both her 1999 breakthrough On How Life Is and last year's underrated The Id so irresistible.
As the sold-out crowd began to thin, Gray proclaimed, perhaps not too shockingly, "We're here for you ?- we didn't rehearse or nothing." Some in the audience giggled. More headed toward the door.
Gray and her band, Bones, did manage to successfully play two tracks from The Id, the tongue-in-cheek "Give Me All Your Loving or I Will Kill You" and the '70s Rhoades rasper "Boo." But just when it seemed like the band might redeem itself, Gray said, "We've got one more for you" and improvised her way through a messy audience call and response jam (sample "lyric": "I've got what it takes/ Please jump in the lake").
Though The Id was a commercial disappointment, it still seemed like Gray had the talent and the voice to take on neo-soul newcomers like Alicia Keys and India.Arie. After last night's show, though, it's obvious that Gray has relinquished her crown, and, if she continues to stumble, will never be able to get it back.
