James Blake @ The Palais Theatre, Melbourne (31/07/2013)
The entirely seated audience that turned up to enjoy the musings of UK artist James Blake were delivered a soulful, tight, and at times beautiful set, courtesy of James and his band, consisting of life-long friends Ben Assiter and Rob McAndrews.
Picking and choosing songs from the various EPs and LPs released by James since his rise to prominence in 2011 with his self titled debut, and paying particular attention to James' latest release 'Overgrown'.
Preceding the main event of the evening was Sydney based electronic artist Oliver Tank. Oliver has enjoyed a good run for the past two years or so, stepping into the spotlight with a well received debut album, and opening for James Blake shows that things have only gone up from there.
Standing behind a table, Oliver made use of drum machines and vocal manipulation to deliver a short but sweet string of songs, that never really went beyond the level of mellow that he's become known for. He's a very talented dude, and his modest set of equipment showed that he was capable of creating some really warm and lush sounds while also keeping everything nicely restrained.
After taking to the stage with a extended and elaborated version of Air or Lack Thereof, James wasted no time strolling through I Never Learned To Share, Our Love Comes Back, and Overgrown to start off the set before entering into I Am Sold, which ever since I first heard it off his latest release, I've always known would be truly special live.
After taking the time to thank the crowd and sing his praises of Australian audiences, James continued on throughout the set, with a super awesome performance of CYMK, one of his earliest tracks released, off the EP of the same name. I'd say he faltered slightly in his performance of Life Round Here purely because it did find itself become repetitive, due to the fact that verses were extended and repeated to an unnecessary degree, which is slightly disappointing as I've heard James quoted as saying Life Round Here is a song that he really loved to play live.
Lindesfarne I & II, Unluck, Limit To Your Love, and especially Voyeur all proved fantastic, and it really became apparent during this collection of songs that James and his band are truly talented musicians, able to elaborate and build songs beyond their perceived ending point, whether this be through using different instruments than one would assume to achieve certain sounds and effects, or their sheer attention to detail in the performance of the songs themselves.
Closing with Retrograde, the song is just as powerful and satisfying live as I would have hoped, the hummed intro and explosive chorus filling the room and I honestly let my jaw drop without even noticing, which I don't even know if I ought to be embarrassed by.
After disappearing backstage for a time, James, Ben and Rob returned to perform what I consider to be James' best song, Wilhelm Scream. Afterwards, Ben and Rob left James alone to perform a cover of Joni Mitchell's A Case of You, during which his talent as a pianist and vocalist could really show through.
James and his band performed fantastically, and I could not have felt more satisfied with their set. If you get the opportunity to see James at any point I would definitely recommend taking it.
Nick Kennedy
Picking and choosing songs from the various EPs and LPs released by James since his rise to prominence in 2011 with his self titled debut, and paying particular attention to James' latest release 'Overgrown'.
Preceding the main event of the evening was Sydney based electronic artist Oliver Tank. Oliver has enjoyed a good run for the past two years or so, stepping into the spotlight with a well received debut album, and opening for James Blake shows that things have only gone up from there.
Standing behind a table, Oliver made use of drum machines and vocal manipulation to deliver a short but sweet string of songs, that never really went beyond the level of mellow that he's become known for. He's a very talented dude, and his modest set of equipment showed that he was capable of creating some really warm and lush sounds while also keeping everything nicely restrained.
After taking to the stage with a extended and elaborated version of Air or Lack Thereof, James wasted no time strolling through I Never Learned To Share, Our Love Comes Back, and Overgrown to start off the set before entering into I Am Sold, which ever since I first heard it off his latest release, I've always known would be truly special live.
After taking the time to thank the crowd and sing his praises of Australian audiences, James continued on throughout the set, with a super awesome performance of CYMK, one of his earliest tracks released, off the EP of the same name. I'd say he faltered slightly in his performance of Life Round Here purely because it did find itself become repetitive, due to the fact that verses were extended and repeated to an unnecessary degree, which is slightly disappointing as I've heard James quoted as saying Life Round Here is a song that he really loved to play live.
Lindesfarne I & II, Unluck, Limit To Your Love, and especially Voyeur all proved fantastic, and it really became apparent during this collection of songs that James and his band are truly talented musicians, able to elaborate and build songs beyond their perceived ending point, whether this be through using different instruments than one would assume to achieve certain sounds and effects, or their sheer attention to detail in the performance of the songs themselves.
Closing with Retrograde, the song is just as powerful and satisfying live as I would have hoped, the hummed intro and explosive chorus filling the room and I honestly let my jaw drop without even noticing, which I don't even know if I ought to be embarrassed by.
After disappearing backstage for a time, James, Ben and Rob returned to perform what I consider to be James' best song, Wilhelm Scream. Afterwards, Ben and Rob left James alone to perform a cover of Joni Mitchell's A Case of You, during which his talent as a pianist and vocalist could really show through.
James and his band performed fantastically, and I could not have felt more satisfied with their set. If you get the opportunity to see James at any point I would definitely recommend taking it.
Nick Kennedy