James Blunt
6th March 2018
Spark Arena, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by John Kidd. Photography by Matt Henry Mendonca.
It was true I was outnumbered, there were certainly many more women in the audience tonight than there were men; but regardless I was looking forward to seeing what James Blunt had to offer on this leg of his ‘The Afterlove’ tour. Having released The Afterlove almost one year ago, tonight’s show would undoubtedly be a showcase of his new material, but I along with a couple of thousand other fans were of course hoping for some of those old favourites.
Blunt may not really be classed as a ‘blokes’ kinda listening material, but truth be told I am rather partial to a good singer songwriter. And when you state his full legal name – throwing in his ranking title from his time with The British Army – Captain James Hillier Blount sounds pretty damn manly to me. Add in the fact that the guy served in Kosovo, is a pilot and has a penchant for motorbikes and that all adds up to a top sounding bloke that would no doubt be rather interesting company to have a yarn with over a quiet beer.
So I was rather surprised upon entering Spark Arena tonight to see that this evening’s show would be a rather more intimate affair than I thought, with the venue being at less than half capacity; the stage brought significantly forward and the upper bowl area being completely curtained off. But that mattered none to his fans, in fact many of them seemed completely overjoyed at the chance to be even closer to their idol; as Blunt arrived on stage and kicked off with ‘Heart To Heart’ the first few rows (the floor section being completely seated) were straight away on their feet in celebration.
Tonight James Blunt is dressed simply in a pair of skinny black jeans and a ‘Dime City – Speed Freaks’ motorcycles t-shirt – his trusty guitar strapped across his chest. Accompanied by a four piece band, they certainly make their entrance, the energetic vibes spilling forth almost palpable. Moving straight into “I’ll take Everything’ and Blunt swiftly changes gear from guitar to an upright piano, no not a keyboard, an actual piano; Blunt being proficient in both as well as the violin. He’s obviously wanting to get this crowd going as with barely a sniff of a break in between he is already onto his third track of the night ‘Wisemen’ from his debut album, Blunt taking us within the first three songs through a nice little cross section of some of his five studio albums.
What I didn’t expect however was Blunt to be such a comedian. With his rather upper-class accent and higher octave voice, to hear him drop the F bomb more than twice in a sentence kind of makes you sit up and pay attention. He begins by chiding the people in front of him, reminding them that the seats are “only for their handbags” and that the left corner section is obviously the “trouble corner” as they haven’t bothered to stand up once yet. “I get it, my father is really, really old, and he often needs to sit down too”; Blunt at this point has the wickedest grin on his face and I find myself chortling along with the people around me. “There’s two down here too” he points to a couple in the first few rows, “I’ve got my fucking eye on you”, at this point I’m honestly starting to think that Blunt should do a separate stand-up comedy tour at some point.
After threatening to withhold the song ‘You’re Beautiful’ from the set list tonight – which results in some play along groaning from the audience – Blunt reminds everyone that if they stand up and participate that it will feel more like a rock show, which would be grand for him as he has always wanted to be a “rock star”. And as I watch Blunt’s performance tonight, you do get that impression. Sure the guy can sing, hitting notes that most men wouldn’t even consider and playing his guitar and often the piano with the skills of many a well-honed musician. But he never really quite makes the crossover to rock star. Indie-Pop, Folk-Rock … sure! But full blown rock star? No, not quite. Maybe it’s the content of his songs; most are written about a woman he has either seen, loved, loved and lost, or had an affair with; ole James Blunt certainly coming across as a bit of a Casanova. But much of it is just fictional, or written from long ago memories as Blunt is happily married with a child now days. He does also write songs about other things too though, the track ‘Someone Singing Along’ being penned in regards to the current POTUS, Blunt jokingly apologising to any Americans that may be in the audience tonight.
As the opening notes of ‘Goodbye My Lover’ begin, Blunt seated at the piano, soft white spotlights falling upon him, a communal sigh rises from the audience; no one – not even myself – can deny that this is one hell of a heart string tugger track. And no it isn’t written about a lover who has passed on, more painfully it is written about one who still lives but who will never be his, the emotions that Blunt feels about the situation still coming through loud and clear despite the track being almost fifteen years old now. As I look around, couple are holding hands, or gazing into the eyes of their loved ones beside them; others are quietly smuggling a tissue to the corner of their eye. I on the other hand am contemplating how cool it must have been when Blunt recorded the song in Carrie Fishers bathroom; being a big Star Wars fan the fact that Blunt – who resided with Fisher for a large period of time – always referred to her as his “American mother” is just another good reason to like the chap!
As the show moves on Blunt and his band of merry men take us through a timeline of songs that range from the poppy to the melancholy, Blunt making the joke that “Misery sells” further on in the show. The lighting tonight is simple, but clever; taking the stage in an instant from full on pop show with spotlights and strobe lights flashing everywhere, to a more intimate club setting; smoke and soft purples and greens highlighting Blunt in a more solo stance as he serenades the swooning ladies in the front row.
Just before ‘Postcards’ we are treated to some more of that humour, although the jokes about him being a “smaller man” and his favourite guitar giving him “more girth” were a little cringe worthy, the low brow smut being a little beneath a man who is obviously rather intelligent. ‘Make Me Better’ involving a long-winded prelude about him being Ed Sheerans “bitch” (Sheeran co-writing the song) only fractionally better in the comedy stakes.
‘You’re Beautiful’ came and went, the crowd happily participating in a chorus sing along as Blunt stood off to the side, encouraging them with much arm flailing to be louder. One thing is for sure, at no point during his show does Blunt not try to engage with the audience, a point very much in his favour. Finishing on a cover of the Robin Schulz track ‘OK’ upon which he is the featured artist, Blunt attempts to really work the crowd up; he’s jiving about all over the stage, both lead guitarist Ben Castle and Bassist John “Johnny-Boy” Garrison providing the oomph behind his acoustic guitar. But then Blunt began to crouch down; with the music swirling around him he began to gesture to the fans directly in front of him to take a seat, even coming to the very edge of the stage to politely encourage a group of ladies to do the same. The fans take the hint and sit, the music still quietly whirling above their heads; Blunt begins to quiver, his outstretched hand shaking as the music begins to build in volume. Blunt is going for the ‘jump’ that moment when the beat drops and everyone goes crazy. But this isn’t a 21 Pilots show and despite his best efforts Blunt is no Tyler Joseph, the jump ending up going a bit awry as half the audience bounce up too soon, resulting in a bit of an anti-climax. Despite this everyone seems to have a bit of a laugh participating and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.
Removing his guitar, Blunt waves and leaves the stage, each member of the band doing the same until there is no one left. While the hardier fans began a chant of ‘James Blunt!’ it wasn’t the most eagerly demanded encore I have ever heard, maybe in part to it being a school night and the demographic of his audience requiring a good eight hours sleep in order to function the following day. Never the less he arrived back on stage with a huge smile, praising the audience and telling them all that it was them that “made the difference, so thank you so much.” The humour was back too as Blunt advised everyone that being him he was going to finish on something miserable and possibly slightly creepy considering the song was about another man’s wife; “Don’t Give Me Those Eyes’ certainly making you wonder just what sort of escapades Blunt did get up to in his bachelor days.
The very catchy ‘1973’ was his swan song, Blunt once again shooting for that rock star glory as he worked every inch of the stage and finished by surfing the top of the piano while taking pics of the crowd on his phone. You gotta hand it to the guy; he certainly gives it his all. Thinking it was over I gave a hearty round of applause with a side order of rousing cheers and was about to leave my seat when Blunt called out “one more??” and the band suddenly sprang back into action; ‘Bonfire Heart’ a nice little added bonus.
Overall Blunt and band delivered and I left happy – my desire to have a beer with the guy still very much intact.
Were you there at Spark Arena for this large scale folk rock gig? Or have you seen James Blunt perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Heart To Heart
- I’ll Take Everything
- Wisemen
- Time Of Our Lives
- Heartbeat
- Someone Singing Along
- Goodbye My Lover
- High
- Lose My Number
- Carry You Home
- Postcards
- Make Me Better
- You’re Beautiful
- Same Mistake
- Bartender
- OK [Robin Schulz cover]
- Don’t Give Me Those Eyes [encore]
- Stay The Night [encore]
- 1973 [encore]
- Bonfire Heart [encore]
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