Review: Morris Day live at BB King’s in NYC

Posted by The G on July 30, 2011 under G Reviews | Comments are off for this article

Photos by G.

What time is it?  It was time for Morris Day to perform in New York on July 29, 2011 at BB King’s.  I haven’t seen Morris Day perform in a decade and it’s about time I saw him again as the music he recorded with The Time (and on his own) is still in heavy rotation on my stereo, 30 years later.  Billed as Morris Day and the Time, the remaining members are keyboardist Monte Moir and drummer Jellybean Johnson.  Jerome Benton, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and Jesse Johnson were nowhere to be found, which was a bummer, but Morris still looked and sounded great.  Morris Day did many hits medleys as there was a lot of ground to cover in a very short time and songs from each album by The Time were performed.

For The Time diehards such as myself, here’s a summary of tracks played from each record:

The Time: Get It Up, Girl, Cool, The Stick

What Time Is It?: Wild and Loose, 777-9311, The Walk, Gigolos Get Lonely Too

Ice Cream Castles: Jungle Love, If The Kid Can’t Make You Come (Instrumental while Morris talked to the crowd), The Bird, Tricky (B-side)

Pandemonium: Skillet, Chocolate, Jerk Out, Sometimes I Get Lonely, Pandemonium

Morris Solo:

Color of Success: Oak Tree

Daydreaming: Fishnet

I was sad not to hear”Ice Cream Castles,” and “Color of Success” but Morris more than made up for it with his signature dance moves, his stage presence and his ability to still be able to charm the ladies.  The audience loved every second of it too and though we were seated at tables for the show, most everyone got up and danced.  It was interesting to hear bits of the B-side “Tricky” thrown in right before “Jungle Love” and “The Bird” featured females from the audience shaking their moneymakers on stage.  It was definitely weird seeing a person who is not Jerome dancing with Morris, and doing the things Jerome used to do like holding a large mirror so Morris could check his reflection, wiping Morris’ brow when he got too sweaty and making sure his pimp coat was well cared for while Morris busted some dance moves, but aside from that, this was a really fun show – and for someone that has seen Morris perform many times, I was not disappointed at all.

That’s what time it is!

The set list was: Intro / Skillet / Cool / Get It Up / Pandemonium / Chocolate / Wild and Loose / The Stick / Fishnet / Oak Tree / Jerk Out / 777-9311 / Girl / Sometimes I Get Lonely / Gigolos Get lonely Too / If The Kid Can’t Make You Come (Instrumental) / The Walk

Encore:  The Bird / Tricky / Jungle Love