James Blake @ 7th Street Entry 05.16.11

I mean, I’ve been to shows with incredibly loud bass, the kind that rattles your hair a little, really driving home the low end of the music, which I absolutely love.  But until James Blake graced Minneapolis with his presence at the small and intimate 7^th Street Entry, I’ve never experienced bass that literally rattled my insides.  Like, I thought I might have some bone damage (let alone hearing damage), and it was awesome.

Maybe it’s the small and intimate part about the Entry that really magnified the bass, or the excellent sound system that could actually handle that much low end, but whatever it was, it was magnificent.  What was also magnificent about was how quiet the Entry was.  Let’s face it, James Blake is a hot commodity, so the fact that he played in a space that holds roughly 300 people is special (despite the fact that Blake, while speaking to the audience, originally thought he was playing the main room), so that means the show was a special one, and people thankfully treated it that way.  I mean it was The Cedar quiet in the Entry, which never happens.

These are all good things, as Blake’s music is incredibly intricate, even when the beat drops.  I knew we were in for something amazing during Blake’s first song, “Unluck,” which started out a little quiet, the pitter-pattering of the drum pad dancing around the key lines Blake was performing along with his vocals.  Then, BOOM – all hell broke loose for the crescendo, proving that the best James Blake listening experience is a live one.  I don’t care how good your stereo is.

In between songs, people continued to “shush” one another, and although it became a joke as the show went on, the respect for Blake continued throughout the evening.  Oh, except for the woman behind me who dropped her beloved pedometer on the floor and then got down on all fours searching for it, because it was way more important for her to find her pedometer than experience the show.  No joke.

“I Never Learnt To Share” and “Lindisfarne I-II” really demonstrated how soulful Blake’s voice is, which was then ran through loop machines, building the gorgeous melodies found throughout his EPs and self-titled LP.  Even though I can’t tell you how many times I heard the term “dubstep” thrown about the Entry that evening, the most experimental sounding song was “Klavierwerke,” with its mutating time signatures and beats building until the end.  Again, hearing this live took it to a whole different level (I grabbed an mp3 of this track, see below).  But people stuck with it, trying to bob their heads in time with the chaos.

“Limit To Your Love” was gorgeous as expected, even as I was sure my eardrums would fall out of my head at any point.  Blake closed his main set with “The Wilhelm Scream” before bowing off stage.

The rest of the crowd was obviously as impressed as I was, and Blake was very appreciative as he came out for an encore, telling us “I save this song for the gigs that go really well.”  And with that, he performed a new one, solo on the piano, before the lights came up and everyone vibrated out the doors onto 7^th Street.

Mind blowing.

James Blake - Klavierwerke live @ 7th Street Entry

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