James Blunt @ Radio City

If anyone asks you if you’d like to see James Blunt play live somewhere, then your answer should be a resounding YES! Kristy scored (well, bought) some tickets for us, so off we trolleyed last night to check out his show. And ever since Kristy did the tour of Radio City with her folks, I have been anxious to find out if the venue lives up to its reputation.

Well guess what? It most certainly does. The place is simply amazing – divine, even. I won’t bother going into details after Kristy did such a great job in her review, but suffice to say, I was very impressed.

Anyway – back to the subject at hand – James Blunt. From the moment he came dancing onto the stage with his guitar, right through to his final bow at the end of the show, he put on an amazing, energetic, and super entertaining performance. Between each of his songs, he spent a fair bit of time talking about his life, or making fun of himself (“I really sing like a girl, you know…”), or explaining the inspiration behind his music.

The only thing that matched the quality of the band’s performance was the amazing set, including a massive screen behind the band which was used to project various images throughout the concert. And, since we had perfect seats for getting a grand overview of the entire theatre, we didn’t miss a moment of the action up on the stage – well, except perhaps for a few of the finer details!

But of course, the make or break point of a concert is the quality of the sound, and without a doubt, this was the purist sounding concert that I have ever been to. If you closed your eyes, you would have sworn you were listening to a CD! And James sings with such heartfelt emotion in his songs, such as You’re Beautiful, No Bravery, and most especially Goodbye My Lover. You can tell that in his mind, he is recalling the exact incidents that inspired him to write the songs in the first place.

So I could go on and on with details of how much we enjoyed the show, how brilliant the acoustics are, how well planned out the set list was, etc etc. but nothing would compare to being there. Instead, here’s a quick cut from a few of the songs (High, Goodbye My Lover, and You’re Beautiful). Who’d have thought my little digital camera wouldn’t do the acoustics justice?

Time – 1:30, Size – 2 MB

gerrod.com rating: 11/10. Yes, it was that good.