NELLIE MCKAY CONCERT REVIEW
THE MYSTIC THEATER IN PETALUMA, CA - AUGUST 18, 2008

There were less than 100 people in the audience at this show, which is bad for this venue which holds about 500, but made for a very intimate and fun evening with one of my favorite singers. I first saw Nellie McKay at New York City's Zipper Factory in May and this show was even better and different enough to have me hooked for future concerts.

Nellie took the stage wearing a gorgeous red flapper dress looking better than ever. I was a bit worried to see a Roland keyboard instead of the full piano she played the last time I saw her, but the sound was just fine. After a couple of songs she was super comfortable and had the audience eating out of her hands.

She introduced "Cupcake" by dedicating it to the recently married Ellen Degeneris and Portia di Rossi, which evolved into a fun ramble about adopting dogs. Other fun in-between song bits included stories about getting a phone call from Ralph Nader, a stray pigeon she took in, the Denny's waiter's concern that she ordered 2 veggie burgers for herself, and her upcoming gigs at a Dana Carvey concert and the Democratic National Convention. She's funny and informative without being preachy.

I haven't had this much fun at a concert since seeing Todd Snider play at The Palms in Winters, CA last year. In fact, these two would make an excellently diverse double bill.

Her set list included "Clonie", "Toto Dies", "David", and other favorites with ukulele performance breaks that included the tongue in cheek feminist ditty "Mother of Pearl" and the classic "Don't Fence Me In". Her performance of "Tipperary" included a brilliant show off of other famous piano song samples while she sang on which drew great applause to which she responded, "Please don't encourage that sort of thing, I'll work harder if you jeer me!"

She also mixed thing up with an instrumental that she played "to class up the act a bit" and a pair of songs from Mary Poppins ("Feed the Birds" and "The Laughing Song") that were a great mix of silly and entertaining.

Her website's been knocked out for a week, but she's playing at San Francisco's Outside Lands festival this Saturday and has some New York shows lined up soon. Hopefully her webmaster will wake up or pay the hosting bill and get it back up for sure.

In the meantime, you can do no wrong checking out any of Nellie's 3 CDs. Her debut disc "Get Away From Me" has been reissued as a dual CD/DVD that includes some concert footage from a 2005 San Francisco Show, and it's a great listen all the way through. Her 2nd CD, "Pretty Little Head" isn't available on iTunes for some strange reason, but it's a fun double CD that's worth picking up at your local record store or Amazon. Her more recent release, last year's "Obligatory Villagers" is on iTunes and includes a bonus track not available on the physical release. They're all fantastic. See her live when you can!

She's got a style that's on her own, and I recommend her highly. Definitely someone to watch out for.

-Robert Berry
rberry@retrocrush.com