james BLAKE...

This week, I went to Webster Hall in the City to see a sold out James Blake concert with a good friend. My dad introduced me to the British DubStep artist ages ago, and I instantly took a liking to the one song he played me but I did not do much further investigation into his music. After talking about one of our mutual obsessions (A Song of Ice and Fire...aka Game of Thrones), my friend mentioned her taste for Blake's music and that he was playing in the City and she was hoping to get tickets despite their popularity. The Good Luck Fairy granted us tickets through some gentle persuasion, and we got to go see Blake, up close and personal! What an adventure...

First things first. Chairlift opened for the British artist. I had no clue who and what Chairlift was, but ended up being pleasantly surprised. There is one song that they are pretty known for called Bruises which is on some ipod (RIP Mr. Jobs) commercial. Their music was deffo mysterious but also catchy all at the same time, fun and whimsical. I have to do some research into their music cause I actually enjoyed it (would have liked it better sitting down, but that is a whole other story).

Then... BLAKE. I was very excited even though my familiarity with his music and style was very limited. But my friend's excitement and appreciation for him was infectious! So I was excited. And Whoa was it amazing. There were a few downsides (none attributed to his music or the artist), but mainly perhaps the kind of people the show attracted. Don't get me wrong. I am not an avid concert goer, nor do I believe it is my scene, and maybe the other day wasn't the best day for me to go. Anywho, people were being really inconsiderate (aka smoking pot like right behind me and also to my right or jammin out way too hard given the space restrictions).

But nothing could dampen my opinion of Blake. His vocals and the distortion of his own voice were amazing. Even though I was not familiar with his work, my friend informed me that he changed up songs, kind of remixing his own work, which also takes a large amount of skill and in a sense improv. The technology required to produce the sounds and the effects that we were hearing, is amazing and Blake's mastery of it all is apparent. His music has minimal lyrical content, but words have a severe impact on top of the heavy dubstep rhythms and troupes. The bass in his music would make your bones quiver and give you goosepimples. The dissonance in his music almost created a hauntingly harmonious symphony, as well as a good tune to dance to.

It was also nice to see, as my friend commented on her blog, that Blake was really into his own music and performing it. He was jammin out from his seat almost as hard as the people around me. That I really like. He would bump his head almost to the point where I was afraid he would hit his head on the microphone, and he would tap his leg almost as hard. He was also really very humble too, thanking the audience, calling us beautiful. It was really great being in a room with a bunch of people and surrounded by good music and a grateful artist!

My friend and I had a really great time... so much fun. Good music and Good company!