Yahoo! Music Review

Gig played on 29/01/09

If there's any tightrope pop artists must navigate to provide not only a visual feast but also sincere musical virtuosity, Grace Jones doesn't mind; she is the unequivocal master of blurring the line between the fashion runway and the concert stage. But if she is able to confidently ignore any pitfalls in towing such a fine line between the two it's because she possesses something few chart darlings have in an arsenal of pop gems and a true exoticism.

This is no more the case than this evening, one of a trio of sell out appearances from Jones at the Roundhouse. Her return is one that few would have expected after nearly two decades had passed since the release of 1989's tame "Bulletproof Heart". But having swanned in and stolen the show with a mesmerising performance at the Massive Attack-curated Meltdown last year, a return loomed.

With the black veil dropping, the first glimpse of Jones is her gyrating hips to "Nightclubbing"'s inimitable bass line atop a vast cherrypicker platform. Commanding the stage like an empowered dominatrix, barking lewd remarks between songs with her leotard proudly showing off her remarkable frame of a reputed six decades, she immediately has the audience eating from her palm.

If this return has marked one significant turn-up for the books it is in the remarkable quality of writing on last year's "Hurricane". Joined by producer Ivor Guest, co-writer and the man responsible for coaxing Jones back into the studio, new material stands mightily besides old classics, the music industry-slaying "Corporate Cannibal" proudly positioned besides her potent appropriation of Edif Piaf's "La Vie En Rose".

The performance is all so engrossing that few balk at the portly devil dressed in black that joins Jones for "The Devil In My Life". But never is there a sense of pantomime to the show, the costume changes part and parcel of the package she presents, whether the vast symbols in each hand that are clatters together for the meteoric outing of "Demolition Man" or constant pole dancing.

Launching into "Pull Up To The Bumper" with confetti bursting out, the stage is soon littered with overenthusiastic members of the crowd caught in the moment as they shake away besides the former Warholian muse. Soon hollered on for an encore, returning to the stage with some trademark smut, "Love Is The Drug" announces an opportunity for some party tricks, hula hooping the entire way through "Slave To The Rhythm", even taking the opportunity to introduce her band. Soon the mighty Hurricane Grace is gone. Following such a monumental performance from an artist ripening with age though, this seems far from any swansong for the queen of the dance.

by Sam Strang