POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Etheridge at Ease With Self, Songs

If any fans came to Melissa Etheridge’s Greek Theatre concert to see whether she has changed somehow since officially coming out of the closet last year, they really got only one overt gesture: She closed the regular set of Friday’s two-hour-plus show with a sly revision of Rod Stewart’s sexual coming-of-age ballad “Maggie May”--a perfect vehicle for Etheridge’s raspy voice.

Yes, the singer-songwriter seemed more comfortable and natural on stage than at any time since she first showed up as an acoustic solo performer around town in the mid-’80s. But Friday that seemed to have less to do with her personal revelations than with her apparent realization that she needn’t pump up every song into an anthemic blimp.

While Etheridge still seems to have arena-rock aspirations, in the first of her two nights at the Greek she and her new three-piece band plied them with grace. And such recent songs as the warm “Come to My Window” reflect a maturity that has allowed her to explore more of the subtler textures of both her voice and her favorite topic, intimacy.

Ironically, Etheridge has come up with a legitimate anthem: The sight of thousands of people--male and female, gay and straight--singing along to “All American Girl” was a terrific rock ‘n’ roll moment.