With James Blake being championed by many critics after his debut album dropped last month, his intimate show at Glasgow’s Nice N Sleazy seemed like the perfect opportunity to see the talented man up-close.
If you do your homework (watching Youtube videos), then standing at the correct side of the stage to see James Blake should be easy. In James’ case, he’s sitting on the right. So that’s where I stood on the seats at a packed Sleazys so that I could get a perfect view of Mr. Blake.
Much to my disdain, I didn’t take into account the pile of monitors that were on the right of the stage too – so I cannot actually say with any certainty that I was at a James Blake show, because I didn’t see very much of the young musician. Lesson learned.
James and his two companions – one of which appears to be Mount Kimbie’s Kai Campos but isn’t because as I discovered later; his name is Rob McAndrews – and the other, the percussionist, Ben Assiter, I recall from the aforementioned Youtube videos. Win.
The 45-minute set began with ‘Unluck’; a track that quickly got the audience’s attention and clearly displayed the talent that Ben Assiter has, as he did well to hold the erratic beat that’s evident on the majority of Blake’s tracks.
One of the highlights of the night was ‘Wilhelm Scream’; a song that conveys so much raw emotion and subdued energy it’s simply breath-taking to watch live. The scaling guitar in the background of the noise illustrates the layers that make up a song that sounds so effortless.
This may seem naïve on my part, but I always thought James had a few vocalists on his tracks – his live performance proved me very wrong. What sounds like female vocals on ‘To Care (Like You)’ turns out to be James singing and his magical equipment altering his voice to sound like a lovely lady on a Burial track or something to that effect.
The last song of the evening was to be a James Blake solo effort as his live companions departed the stage. The track that would end the night was a Joni Mitchell cover: ‘A Case of You’ showcases the un-altered, organic nature and ability that James Blake has when the plethora of electronic equipment has been put to the side.
James didn’t give the crowd an encore, but he will be back at Nice ‘n’ Sleazy on March 27th – that’s the best encore you could ever ask for.
