Not big on frills or banter, Gray instead kept talk to a minimum and let an array of lights and colors enhance the mood.
There were pinwheels of white spiraling over the shout-from-the-rooftops pop declaration “You’re the World to Me.’’ A background of twinkling stars, with a little help from a mirror ball, swirled around the keening ballad “Nemesis’’ - into which Gray tossed a bit of Kate Bush’s “Running up That Hill.’’ There was cool blue for the ruminative “Ain’t No Love,’’ simply arranged for Gray on piano and the fine picking of his guitarist, who also offered robust harmony vocals.
The latter were strategically deployed throughout the night, bolstering Gray’s own emphatic, gritty style. The two musicians seemed particularly attuned on the dark “Draw the Line,’’ a tangled tango of licks and loops feeding back into each other as Gray howled about doubt, fear, possibility, and frustration.
The audience exercised its vocal cords frequently, chiming in during the waltz-time stomper “Be Mine,’’ on the grandly romantic “Sail Away,’’ and his breakthrough radio hit “Babylon,’’ which was retooled to feature a more streamlined groove.
Bobbing his head with rhythmic joy, pumping his fist, and playing air drums, Gray closed out the night with the joyful hitch and burble of “Please Forgive Me.’’
Opener Lisa Hannigan, while generally more low-key, was equally entertaining with her smoky vocals and layered arrangements, including a steadily building cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus’’ that brought her set home with a bang.
