Rose Garden Theater of the Clouds
Portland, Oregon
Tuesday, November 7, 2006

It must be difficult to create a sound which appeals to so many while dealing with growing pains and onstage restrictions created by that sound. For James Blunt, this is a dilemma.

Portland’s Theater of the Clouds was a big venue for Blunt; 6,000 seats available with only about 2,500 tickets sold. This created a cold, hollow space which is in stark contrast to Blunt’s intimate performances in venues more his size. The biggest issue however, was not the venue, it was onstage. Blunt has tapped into a singer/songwriter vein which has catapulted him to peaks of chart success, but at this stage in the game he tours more as a member of his band than the leader—and his music is worse off for it.

He took the stage after a short trailer for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth aired on the curtains. Immediately, it was nice to hear Blunt’s songs fleshed out with a full band after witnessing many solo shows of his. But what happened to the songs with the band was both alluring and invasive. The allure comes from watching a sensitive artist break away from the conventional and use the stage to run back and forth—something you won’t get at a solo performance. The loss of sensitivity and focus is where the invasive nature of a band intruded upon his songs.

Midway through his second song, a mild disconnect occurred by the fact that the singer/songwriter is enveloped by sound which has begun to chip away at the poignancy of his lyrics and the subtleties of his arrangements. A third of the way through his set, the excitement created by Blunt’s simple onstage presence had worn off and the audience had settled in for what was more of a hit-and-miss performance than an all-out emotional build.

For “Goodbye My Lover,” Blunt’s band left the stage while he set up at the piano encouraging the crowd to “join [him] at the very end,” and it obliged. He then delivered a stunning performance of the song and at once appeared the most comfortable he’d been all night. The song ended with a burst of applause, leading to a rousing performance of Supertramp’s “Breakfast in America,” followed by Blunt jumping into the audience and bestowing hugs on a few fortunate women in the front row; by far the highlight of the evening. “Tears and Rain” followed and succeeded only due to the contact buzz created by the previous two songs, but the next 30 minutes was a battle between Blunt’s sensitive songs & persona and his desire for tempo; an indication he is striving to grow as an artist and not be a one-dimensional down-tempo singer/songwriter.

The evening provided many solid moments of performance, crowd participation and emotional stirring; most notably with the video accompanying “No Bravery” showing the brutality and devastation of the Kosovo conflict, a conflict of which Blunt has personal experience. The show ended with a three-song encore including the new “1973,” which is destined to be a hit, and “You’re Beautiful,” which while getting the crowd singing and waving its hands, suffered from a lack of passion.

Blunt has incredible talent and has quickly become a top-notch singer/songwriter. It’s very apparent this may not at all be where he wants the road to end. If the Theater of the Clouds concert is any indication, Blunt will create more of a tempo-driven, band album next, for he is aching to put on a show.

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