JAMES : NOTTINGHAM ROYAL CENTRE 27.10.11
Set
1 : Dream Thrum, Lookaway, Fairground, Say Something, Dust Motes,
Hello, Riders, Just Like Fred Astaire, Of Monsters And Heroes And Men,
Hey Ma, We're Going To Miss You
Set 2 : English Beefcake, Hymn From A Village, The
Lake, She's A Star, Fire So Close, Alaskan Pipeline, Sometimes,
Someone's Got It In For Me, Medieval
Encore : Top Of The World, Space, Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)
After a well-deserved day off and chance to recover
from the adrenalin-charged show in Glasgow, James return to Nottingham
for the first time in a decade. They come on stage just after 8
and open as on previous nights with Dream Thrum. What's
immediately clear is that the sound tonight is going to be beautiful,
crystal clear and the best on the tour so far. Lookaway is
nailed to perfection too, from Larry's plaintive acoustic strum opening
the song, to Tim's half-sung, half-spoken vocals and delicate strings
from the orchestra. Then when the choir kick in, the song soars
as the interplay between them and Tim develops to the song's conclusion.
Fairground sees Tim mock conducting the orchestra and
dancing with the violinist during his solo. At the end, he
tells the crowd that it was lucky they didn't know the song as they
wouldn't know where he messed up. There's no sense of relief from
the crowd just a ripple of applause of recognition at the string-laden
slowed-down opening to Say Something. With the two girls from the
choir at the front singing with Tim, it is a world away from the
sometimes tired version that whips crowds into delight at regular
shows.
At the end of the song, Tim inquires why a guy in the stalls downstairs
had been escorted out. When the crowd tell him he was dancing,
Tim and Larry aren't happy and Tim goes down the stairs and into the
foyer to bring the guy back into the venue. Larry gets Mark
to start the intro to Dust Motes, which he says you can't dance to,
whilst Tim is busy bringing the dancer back into the arena to rapturous
applause. Tim jokes that if anyone is going to get thrown out for
dancing, it'll be him. Unfortunately, the guy, who is clearly drunk,
takes his moment in the limelight a bit too far and thinks he has Tim's
ear and wants to get on stage to dance. Apparently he gets
thrown out again later.
All the drama prefaces a truly gorgeous Dust Motes, with Mark's piano
complementing Tim's spinge-tingling vocals and some very subtle string
accompaniment, until the second chorus where the choir provide a
gorgeous lilting backing to Tim and then the drums and the male voices
of the choirs lift the song up before it drops back down to its string
and piano ending, seguing beautifully into Hello, with more Mark piano
and Jim's bass. Even before the orchestra come in and the choir
add some delicious harmonies, the song is a world away from the
comparatively suffocated version that ended up on Millionaires.
What is so special about this tour is the way the orchestration works -
there are songs, like those two, where the song very obviously fits in
with the remit and they are done with precision and care and raise the
hairs on the neck, and then there's the songs that need to be adapted
to work with the orchestra and choir.
Riders is next and fits into the second group. Tim explains the
song as about a dream where he had two paths to choose between -
self-destruction and survival. The backing is quite menacing,
with Andy making all sorts of strange noises putting his trumpet
through an effects machine and builds, getting louder and wilder as
Tim's vocals get more frenetic until the song stops dead apart from
some lovely reverb on Tim's voice. It then comes back as an
almost mantra-like chant by Tim, the choir and Larry. What
it does as well is add a little more spice to the first set.
Just Like Fred Astaire is simply beautiful. Tim's foray into the
audience, tonight over the seats taking a camera off a guy half way
back and singing to him, slightly detracts from the as close to perfect
as you'll get performance of the orchestra. The "come dance the
water's rising" ending is underpinned by some subtle "just like fred
astaire" singing by the choir instead of the obvious joining in with
Tim and blowing the roof off. The evening's first comedy
moment is supplied by Tim then being stuck in the middle of the seats
and requiring a microphone relay team to get back on stage over the
chairs.
Of Monsters And Heroes And Men fits into the first category of songs
mentioned earlier, but it is all in the delivery. Tim looks on
the edge of breaking down as he belts out the story with some dramatic
male choir accompaniment. Andy's trumpet call helps to build the
musical drama to match as the song marches to its finish.
Hey Ma is a revelation. From Larry's acoustic guitar that starts
off sounding slightly battered and bruised, but right in with the mood
of the song, through the choir raising the ante, to the harp-plucked
build up to the last chorus which sees the rest of the band delaying
and delaying the kick back in to the dramatic choir harmonies and brass
over the crescendo that is the end of the song. I cast an eye to
my left and the fine gentleman in the neighbouring seat is chair
dancing, arm waving and singing along, just as I had been.
Tim says to the crowd that it's tense. I think it's one adjective
of many that could be used. I'd go with dramatic, and We're Going
To Miss You continues in that vein. Strings, brass, drums, guitar
and choir fight for position, but never get in each other's way. Just
to cap off the best first half of the tour so far, they get the walk
off whilst the song is still going spot on tonight as well, the
orchestra stopping playing and going first, leaving band, choir and
crowd to finish it off.
The second half starts with just the orchestra on stage and Tim comes
on wearing a long conductor's coat and starts to mock conduct the
orchestra through the William Tell Overture whilst dancing at the same
time. When it stops, Tim calls for Jim and Larry, looking forlorn
and the rest of the band come back out. Tim addresses the crowd,
hoping that they are getting what's going on, and that's there no Sit
Down and they'll have to come again, joking that the songs were chosen,
partly by picking songs they hadn't played for a long time and partly
by lottery.
English Beefcake works a lot better tonight than it did earlier in the
tour, some delicious harmonies from the choir, underpinning the strings
in the instrumental sections and a simply wonderful outro.
Hymn From A Village sees Andy start it from one of the circle boxes,
before the song ascends into an almost music-hall rendition of the
song. From a spindly mid-80s indie hit to a celebratory romp of
plucked strings, blasted out brass, choir and audience clapping.
In just over three minutes, it encapsulates the whole magic of this
adventure - everyone on stage out of their comfort zones, yet with the
confidence in themselves as individuals and as a group to make it work
spectacularly.
The Lake, in its fourth ever live outing, now feels like it's been in
the set forever. Eerie in parts, poignant and exquisitely
played and sung, it's an undeniable highlight of the set.
Looking at the choir as they add delicate shade to Tim's vocals, one of
the girls is drumming with her hands along to Dave's beat. Again,
Tim looks to be on the edge, in the washing machine as he described it
in the soundcheck.
She's A Star sees most of the band leave the stage, with just Tim and
Mark on piano accompanying a string-led reinvention of the song.
The opening section pierces the atmosphere in the hall like a knife as
the strings replicate the slide guitar, then change pace for the build
into the chorus, where the choir again come into their own.
Fire So Close is introduced as a folk song from the era when they were
pretending they weren't a folk band and not being very good at
it. Again, the power of the four boys from the choir and
Tim on vocals, combined with Larry's acoustic and David's lead violin,
make for a very thrilling combination that seems to both stay true to
the original but also feels reinvented and reinvigorated. Larry
and David's duel seems in particular to be more dramatic by the night.
Alaskan Pipeline oozes and drips emotion from every note, from the
orchestra's extended opening to the song into Tim's softly sung fragile
vocals at the start, which get augmented by the girls in the choir as
the song builds. It's not a complex song, but it doesn't
need to be although the soprano from the choir at the end is so
hauntingly and achingly beautiful that it is difficult not to collapse
into an emotional heap.
Sometimes was always going to be an interesting one after Glasgow, and
whilst it doesn't quite reach the heights it did there, it's still
quite a cathartic experience, Tim making full use of the monitors to
project himself, the choir lifting the song at points, Larry's guitar
in the middle section and the obligatory singalong which goes from
choir to audience and back to choir. Tim encouraging the crowd to
"help an old man out" and challenging them to be as loud as
Glasgow. He aslo ends up dancing with Joe
Someone's Got It In For Me makes a welcome return. It had
always been a track that worked better live than it ever did on record,
and with the addition of extra strings, harp and some beautiful brass,
it's more powerful and ferocious than ever.
Tim tells the crowd there's one song left and is met with a flurry of
requests, to which he responds that there's no requests and the
juggernaut isn't going to be turned round. The main set ends with
a beautifully chaotic Medieval, choir at the front of the stage, Mark
and Saul on additional drums, and the audience joining the choir
singing the "we are sound" as there's both visual and aural chaos on
stage.
The encore starts with another set of requests being thrown at Tim,
including Jingle Bells, but they start with Jim's spindly bass driving
a eerie Top Of The World, which again contains a simply stunning Saul
violin part and more harmonies from the choir which act as another
instrument.
Space wasn't an immediate thought when trying to pre-guess the setlist
and has taken a couple of listens to fully appreciate. It's
clearly one close to Tim's heart, as when he's on his knees at the end
singing "calling you to see through me", it looks like he's going
through an emotional wringer.
Getting Away With It is a perfect set-closer. It is almost as if
it was written for this occasion - you know when the orchestra is going
to kick in, you don't need to surprise anyone with any clever tricks
with the song, simply add orchestra and go. The whole crowd are on
their feet for the first time.
So, tonight was in my opinion the best show of the tour so far in terms
of the performance and the sound was nailed down superbly, the loudness
of Dave's drums and quietness of the choir banished. The crowd
reaction doesn't match that of Glasgow, but that would be laying down a
very heavy marker for any crowd to respond to.