Not bad, not her dad‘It’s a short set,” Lisa Marie Presley apologized from the Gramercy Theatre stage Thursday night. “I want to drag it out.”
Presley wasn’t kidding. Backed by a tight five-piece band, she played just 10 songs — her new album, “Storm & Grace,” has 11 — and between songs, and sometimes during them, she looked unsure about what to do with herself, seeming happiest when keeping time with a mini-tambourine (on “Over Me”) or hitting tom-toms with mallets (on “Un-Break”).
Presley’s nervousness is understandable, simply because she is who she is. Being Elvis’ daughter is a lot to live up to on any stage, even at a smaller show at a venue like the Gramercy, which has room for 500.
As expected, a fair number of showgoers — particularly European visitors — were there to genuflect to her dad, rather than hear how she sounds in person. But the applause from all comers seemed genuine, as people appeared to root for Lisa Marie, at age 44, finally to escape the shadow of her legendary father — and her short-lived marriage to Michael Jackson.
Following “Over Me,” Presley explained that her throat has recently begun drying up onstage. “Maybe it’s because I’m getting old,” she said.
“Still look great!” a man hollered, followed by cheers.
Her look was down-home chic: long black dress, bright red jacket. The musicians were dandier: Three wore top hats, the most oversize belonging to guitarist Michael Lockwood, Presley’s husband, who stood stage right.
“Storm & Grace” is clearly meant to announce Presley’s liberation from her celebrity. Produced by T-Bone Burnett (“O Brother, Where Art Thou?”), it’s cozy, intimate and arty — and sometimes self-conscious.
It won’t convince anyone that Presley is a major talent, but it’s a modest success on its own terms, which is all anybody could ask for in her situation.
Presley doesn’t phrase a lyric much like her dad did, but her voice does unmistakably resemble his — it’s similarly husky, though Lisa Marie also has a burr to her that brings to mind the punk-cabaret icon Marianne Faithfull.
“I’m much too jaded and I’m much too cynical,” Presley sang on “Forgiven,” in the middle of her 50-minute set. But she didn’t seem much like either at this show — just tentative.
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