I confess to being completely obsessed with James Blake. His voice is unbelievable; haunting and ocean deep, moving me like no other artist. I was therefore jittery with excitement for a night of soulful veneration. How disappointed I was.
The multitude of people milling around the bar not realising that the gig had started says it all. It did not bode well for what followed. Blake lacked bravado, energy and for me, vision too, tucked as I was down the side of a heaving venue where I couldn’t see a thing. The production, perfect when contained within home speakers and headphones, fell flat and sounded almost distorted. Drum beats hit out of sync, melodies collided and the bass didn’t shake souls as it should. The stage adaption of Where’s The Catch? (feat. André 3000) ruined the anticipation leading up to the hard slap drop.
And where was André 3000? Where was Rosalía, Travis Scott and Moses Sumney?
With little to no variation in the stage design, lighting or choreography the gig became, lucky for me, unnecessary to watch.
The saving grace of the performance was the unexpected and stunning inclusion of Joni Mitchell’s, A Case Of You. Blake made the song entirely his own. It totally caught me off guard with its sorrowful, complicated lyricism combined at last with that voice, indiscernible from his recorded albums, nay better, as it flooded through the auditorium creating an ethereal, almost regal atmosphere. Too bad this intensity and emotion wasn’t felt throughout the performance.
