Macy Gray: Sexy and Soulful at the Roseland Ballroom (NY Rock)

Macy Gray
cover photo

Related Artists:

- Mary J. Blige
- Erykah Badu
- Aretha Franklin
- Maxwell
- Lenny Kravitz
- Lauryn Hill I
- Lauryn Hill II

^{Macy Gray at Roseland Ballroom, 2/12/00,
photo by Glenn Emerstone, © 2000 NY Rock}

Macy Gray:
Sexy and Soulful at the Roseland Ballroom
by Glenn Emerstone

With afro ablaze and flowing toward the heavens, Macy Gray, the high priestess of funk and soul, lit the stage at Roseland Ballroom, February 12, 2000, with a voice, searing persona and stage presence that at once elicited the ghosts of Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin. Like a revue from some velveted seventies dive bar, Gray and band brought home the message of peace and love to the young suburbanite crowd.

Lanky, agile and electrified, Gray took to the stage like the goddess of the mothership – fusing elements of rap, rock, and pop in a way that would have made P-Funk ship captain, George Clinton proud. Mixing turntables, drum loops, horns and the psychedelicised teeth-playing guitar work of Arrik Marshall, Gray and band turned over the funk, sunny side up, reconditioning it with a smattering of hop-hop beats, rock riffs and old-school soul.

^{Macy Gray at Roseland Ballroom, 2/12/00,
photo by Glenn Emerstone, © 2000 NY Rock}
Dressed in sequin pants and in total control, Macy belted out her personal vignettes on life, relationships and doomed romance with a smoky passion. Opening with the plaintive "Why Didn't You Call Me" from her debut On How Life Is, Gray set the stage with her sassy and well-crafted songs, pacing like a man-eater, hard on the outside but shy and warm on the inside. Singing with scratchy yet assured vocals, Gray towered over the band's Sly-and-the-Family-Stone-style arrangements. Diva-esque and yet down to earth, Gray throbbed, glided and pulsated around the stage like Mick Jagger. Stroking and dry humping the mike stand during "Sex-O-Matic Venus Freak" with a lusty veneer and piercing stare, Macy managed to raise the temperature in the club a few degrees, for the male half, anyway....

The song "Still" showcased the band's bluesy sound and was prefaced by the playful, "Has anybody here been in LLLLLLOVE with the wrong MOTHERFUCKER?" which fell upon deaf virgin ears. The tune "I Try" ended the evening as a sing-along segueing into Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" and back. With two Grammy nominations for best R&B artist and best new artist, Gray is transcending the boundaries of popular music into something truly unique.

March 2000

Check out the cover photo of Macy Gray
featured on NY Rock's home page in March 2000.

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