Went to see RAYE last night in Portland. What a blast! Got my money and time's worth, for certain.
Absolutely
She only performed for 25min, but she was very shy and wasn't really one to talk extensively about the songs themselves. She is actually RAYE's younger sister! Unfortunately, she did not have much stage presence and just moved a few steps side to side during each song, where each song sounded the same as the one before.
RAYE
She went for 1hr 50min, a very healthy set length for the ticket price paid (~$40 w/fees). Yes, a sizable amount of that was her giving a confessional + extensive chit chat in between songs, but her genuine interactions with the entirety of the crowd as well as with a few specific audience members more than warranted the set time distribution.
She played almost all of her excellent 2023 AotY candidate
My 21st Century Blues outside of "Environmental Anxiety," along with a few songs from her previous EPs/singles. Roughly midway through the set, RAYE's band members left the stage where she took requests to perform a few stripped down versions of some old tracks. I didn't recognize any of them, being a new fan. She overdoes it a little with the scatting, but I can't deny that she's a talented vocalist.
During the lead up to the excellent but trigger warning-laden "Ice Cream Man," RAYE spoke for what must have been a three full minutes chronicling the song having been made years ago. She described her several encounters with sexual assault and exploitation from even before she was a teen. Emotions got the best of her just before she even got to singing but with the crowd providing encouragement and strength, she was able to persevere on....until she welled up again before the final line in the song, needing a moment again. Probably the most memorable part of an already great and enjoyable set.
Apparently there was a seven year-old fan at the front of the stage that went with his parents and RAYE greeted him after "Hard Out Here" I think...he handed her a drawing of RAYE that he brought to the show, which caused the singer to well up a bit and elicit fawning from the crowd. She also individually thanked a few "day 1" fans that requested songs during the solo set. We even had some crowd interaction during "Buss it Down" as a call and response during the choir orchestra section in the chorus...which in reality is just RAYE recording overdubbings on the track to make it have the sound of a choir.
She closed off the set with a fake encore, where she hinted in advance that there would be an encore to us lol. Kind of strange, considering that the other artists (particularly from the UK) that I have seen do not really use encores in their live performances. As expected, she returned to the stage to an extended intro of certified banger "Escapism" with the crowd going bananas. Volume level must have doubled alone here; excellent experience. To top it all off, the closing intercom song after the pseudo-encore was Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer." I just spun my US OG copy I found at MP earlier in the day!
Goddamn. I had a fabulous time, but maybe tried to take too many photos amidst it all. Plentiful variety of genres too! Ranged from vocal jazz ("Oscar Winning Tears" and "The Thrill is Gone") contemporary R&B ("Worth It" and "Mary Jane"), dance-pop/house ("You Don't Know Me" and "Black Mascara"), alt-pop ("Body Dysmorphia" and "Flip a Switch"), and UK hip-hop ("Hard Out Here" and "Escapism"). Always something new to keep the audience engaged!
I looked at the merch table before leaving, but wasn't too interested in the $40 tees. Also $30 LPs. $60 if you wanted signed copies. Guess that makes me feel justified in dropping $50 on
Aethiopes last month
That was likely a top10 show this year.
Extended video of slow burner "Mary Jane," complete with some soloing/scatting! Yes, I know the angle isn't great; I'm behind a tall dude. I also really dislike the Crystal Ballroom. She rambles for a spell here:
www.concertarchives.org
