{"id":47467,"date":"2006-11-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/james-blunt-bangs-a-gong\/"},"modified":"2006-11-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-27T00:00:00","slug":"james-blunt-bangs-a-gong","status":"publish","type":"feature","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/james-blunt-bangs-a-gong\/","title":{"rendered":"James Blunt Bangs A Gong"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know I probably lose all credibility as a music reviewer for this, but I can\u2019t help it: I love James Blunt. Yes, \u201cYou\u2019re Beautiful\u201d has been played to death and more than verges on cheesy and on top of that, I\u2019ve never been a huge fan of the dime-a-dozen, soulful pop idols, famous for a few moments of gorgeousness before imploding into one-hit wonderland \u2013 but even despite that, something about Blunt\u2019s debut, Back To Bedlam<\/i>, resonated with me. And apparently I\u2019m not alone, because the Gibson Amphitheater, which seats about 6,000, was packed when I put aside an impending trigonometry test just to see him on Wednesday, November 15th<\/sup>. <\/p>\n

Before taking the stage, British rockers Starsailor went through material from their recent album, last year\u2019s On The Outside <\/i>and earlier releases Love Is Here <\/i>and Silence Is Easy.<\/i> I missed most of their set trapped in a never-ending merchandise line, but what I did hear was fantastic and I went home and ordered On The Outside <\/i>at

After Starsailor went off to go sign autographs, we got 45 minutes of downtime, waiting impatiently for James Blunt while trailers for Al Gore\u2019s An Inconvenient Truth <\/i>inexplicably played in the background \u2013 until, finally, the familiar monkey from Back To Beldam\u2019s <\/i>cover began to descend, and Blunt bounded out from backstage, launching straight into \u201cBreathe,\u201d his mainstay opener for most of the world tour (which is just about to wind down in Las Vegas). <\/p>\n

Some concerts can turn into staid renditions of the album, but Blunt avoided that trap by breaking up the strings of hits from Back To Bedlam <\/i>with a few well-placed covers and some new, unheard material like \u201cAnnie,\u201d with a Killers-esque chorus of \u201cAnnie, you\u2019re a star\u201d and \u201cI Can\u2019t Hear The Music,\u201d which builds from an older demo of his called \u201cDon\u2019t Go\u201d with a new chorus thrown in. He also paused a few songs in to thank anybody who hadn\u2019t thrown his disc out of the car window or used it as a frisbee, poking fun at the backlash he received for \u201cYou\u2019re Beautiful.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n

But back to the covers \u2013 after a melancholy solo version of \u201cGoodbye My Lover\u201d with Blunt at the keys, he segued into Supertramp\u2019s \u201cBreakfast In America\u201d as a reference to the culminating stateside leg of his tour. For an audience that was somewhat wary about standing up to participate (other than random shoutouts of \u201cJames, you\u2019re hot!\u201d every so often), the upbeat energy of this track had everyone singing right along with it — and Blunt jumping into the audience to hug the unsuspecting members of the front row probably helped in keying us up. <\/p>\n

And though he played my favorite songs from Bedlam, <\/i>including \u201cTears and Rain,\u201d \u201cOut Of My Mind,\u201d complete with extended outro and \u201cSo Long, Jimmy\u201d (which sounds even better translated from the album with its looser, louder groove in tribute to Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison), the real standout of the concert was his cover of the Pixies\u2019 \u201cWhere Is My Mind.\u201d It\u2019s been released on his live album, Chasing Time <\/i>and, despite those who consider Blunt to be the epitome of hackneyed pop, manages to do complete justice to the dreamy, mellow landscapes of the brilliant original with a graceful shift from his signature falsetto to a lower growl. <\/p>\n

Rounding out the encore was, of course, \u201cYou\u2019re Beautiful,\u201d which had the crowd on its feet and singing along, even inserting \u201cfucking high\u201d in the bridge instead of the more radio-friendly \u201cflying high\u201d without prompt — and, never shying away from high-energy bombast, the concert closed with a gong being lowered and Blunt gallivanting about the stage before finally thrashing it in a nod towards Queen\u2019s \u201cBohemian Rhapsody.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even with Los Angeles being one of the last few stops on a presumably exhausting jaunt around the world, Blunt gave us his all, straining his voice to hit the high notes and jumping around stage and interacting with a more than receptive audience. That night, it was easy to see James Blunt as more than just the pretty face behind \u201cYou\u2019re Beautiful\u201d and instead as a burgeoning showman; and I can probably speak for everyone at the Gibson Amphitheater and at his shows from around the world when say I can\u2019t wait for his next move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles, CA, USA; November 15, 2006<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"tags":[],"feature_type":[11242],"class_list":["post-47467","feature","type-feature","status-publish","feature_type-concert-review"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/feature"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47467"},{"taxonomy":"feature_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature_type?post=47467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}