James Blake Band On The Wall, Manchester, 26/3/11
4/5
By: Rachel Bolland
One of the defining characteristics of James Blake’s eponymous debut album was his unique use of silence. As such, his live show was always going to be interesting - how was a sold out crowd going to react to silence? The answer to that question is, in fact, with a mutual absence of noise. Throughout his set, the crowd at Manchester’s Band On The Wall watched Blake perform in almost total hush. The support band Cloud Boat, who seemed to borrow heavily from James Blake’s style of minimalism but with a more melodic feel, even commented on the quiet in the room.
At first the silence seemed to be one of awe while watching Blake perform what is a fairly wonderful set. Opening in the same way as the record, with ‘Unluck’, which at once established the artist’s presence in the room, showing why so many people had come to see him. The simplicity of it captured the audience on what was a fairly grey March afternoon, and remarkably Blake manages to hold on to the personality of the record even without studio trickery. Mainly sticking to songs from the album he demonstrated his ability to create huge swells of sound with so little. With only three people on stage, one on drums, one on guitar and Blake himself on keyboard and synths, the way he retains the intricacies and subtleties of the record is really impressive. As well as the electronic minimalism that first brought him to people’s attention Blake uses the set to show he’s more than a one trick pony. Crossing to a grand piano he launches into ‘Give Me My Month’, which always felt quite incongruous on the album but here initiates a change in pace and transforms the feel of the afternoon to one altogether more relaxed. ‘I Never Learnt to Share’ marked the middle of the set, Blake’s a cappella vocals taking on a startlingly haunting feel, the acoustics of the room allowing him to put more emotion into the embittered lyrics than the record has room for.
Blake saves his two singles for the end of the set with Feist cover ‘Limit To Your Love’ generating the largest cheer of the day almost matched by set closer ‘The Wilhelm Scream’. While both of these songs show off Blake’s technical prowess and his ability to capture the crowd with his use of suspension in much the same way the record does, the fact that these tracks elicited the biggest response speaks volumes. It’s hard to decide whether the majority of the crowd was here just to say that they had seen the artist who’s had so much hype around him, to be able to say ’I was there’ if Blake ends up playing huge venues, or whether they were genuine fans who were there to experience an album they love played live. Despite playing a fantastic set, it feels like James Blake has an exceptional amount to prove, but as he showed on this grey afternoon, he certainly has the talent to do so.
Artists in this article: James Blake
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