It’s always interesting to see what similarities or disconnects form when the lead singer of a group breaks out on their own with brand new solo material. Inevitably, you’ll have hardcore fans who clamor for songs from the original outfit, and hopefully some new fans that are coming to the new material all fresh and eager. Skye, the lead singer of English trip hop group Morcheeba, performed at a classy NYC staple known as Joe’s Pub, to a mix of eager fans ready to share their drinks, as well as patrons who looked like over-serious accountant types who just came from their office job on Wall Street to have dinner while catching a show. This mix made for more of a strange live show experience than I’m used to, but Skye’s performance was unaffected by any stiff vibes given off by the suits and ties who were reluctant to stand up and dance if they hadn’t yet finished their Catskill Mountain Trout at the dimly-lit tables.
In fact, she was quite humble and perfectly charming, performing tunes off her recently released third solo album, Back to Now, and doing her best to emphasize the lyrics with gestures and gently coax people into either dancing with her or singing along. When the sing-a-long attempt served more to highlight how awkward and un-musically inclined many of the patrons were and ultimately failed, she simply threw up her hands while laughing and shook it off. And to be fair, her vocals did set the bar improbably high, especially with no warm up other than a bottle of Prosecco. At least, that was the case for one of the tables right at the stage. This did not go unnoticed by Skye, and after proclaiming into the microphone, “I love Prosecco!” the sparkling wine drinkers offered up a glass for her to sip. This gesture was well received as others applauded in approval. Good show, good show.
Skye’s vocals on that song, by the way, sounded exactly like the recording. Maybe the acoustics at Joe’s Pub are also as good as the venue’s aesthetic would lead one to believe they should be, but those high note acrobatics are all her.
Light also played a notable role in her set. Besides the glowing alien armor finger rings, at the end of the encore she had a mini spotlight strapped to her palm, which she shone like a third eye into our faces, heightening her futuristic pop wisdom. She was like a silky smooth-voiced, soulful guru. Besides her originals, Skye and her band gave us an even cooler, more dubbed out version of Blondie’s “Call Me,” and at one point she slipped into Indeep’s “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life.” If all those little tables could have been cleared out, there should have been a dance party on the floor right then. Uptight surroundings aside, Skye saved the night with her pleasantly calm demeanor and her beautifully featherlight, yet powerful, vocals.
Skye gave even more than she got. Besides never ceasing to forget to connect to the audience and being impeccably on-point with her singing, she did one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen a performer do. During her last song “I Believe,” when she noticed a man taking a video of her on his phone, she took it out of his hands and proceeded to sing right into it as she moved around the stage. She swirled around to get the audience behind her and the other players on stage, all while giving the camera some super close up face time. Too bad the sound quality is as bad as a camera phone gets, but you can check out the facetime footage here. As you can tell from the video, she’s actually wearing the same fringe outfit she’s wearing in the “Featherlight” video, and that spooky blue light one of the guys in front is waving around is one of those glowing armor rings she’s wearing as well. After she had performed “Featherlight,” she took those off one by one and threw them out into the crowd.