One of the hottest tickets in town, James Blake at the Corner Hotel was a packed house of rabid fans all too familiar with his older material and yearning to hear more of the new stuff. Rumoured to have sold out in 59 seconds and one of just two appearances in Australia this March, the gig was essentially a showcase, a chance to build on the buzz that was already making a name for unassuming 24-year-old on the radio.
The Corner was deathly still while the London electro-producer and his band began the set with a building instrumental, letting his music do the talking rather than that incredible set of pipes. On occasion, his trademark layered sound made way for some deep bass drops – always a crowd favourite.
Then came the voice. The soulful, yet youthful voice so often featuring as a simple Vocoder loop in his music, hidden beneath layers of synths and beats. A field apart from his contemporaries, Blake could have blown the audience away with his breath alone – thankfully he chose to do it by singing.
Standout track I Never Learnt To Share pulsed energy through the venue, setting the stage for some pretty sweet dance and Latin-influenced mixes. His newer tracks offered a more developed sound (some beats even taking inspiration from the ’90s) than his self-titled release, a sound that could reach an even wider audience. Not that this audience isn’t dedicated enough – even when he embarrassingly restarted a track he was playing out of time, they forgave him. Aww, he’s so cute and humble! Yikes.
Limit To Your Love and The Wilhelm Scream, having had extensive play on triple j, were sung with hundreds of his closest friends. A mumbled thank you sent the fans into orbit – he’s just so humble! Lack of showmanship certainly works well in his favour. As does more reverb, which he requested several times during the gig. Like he wanted to cover up his voice even more, the crazy man.
Then, after waiting ever so patiently, a simple encore offered just one track – but what a track. Retrograde, like every other song, sounded even better live and left a lingering taste in the mouth. Please James, just once more….
BY JEN WILSON
Photo credit: Ben Clement
LOVED: That voice.
HATED: Only one version of Retrograde?
DRANK: Red wine.
