Let me give you a little background on James Blunt and me before we get started. I was sent a copy of the British version of James Blunt’s debut album, Back to Bedlam, back in the early months of 2005. I’ll admit, on the first couple of listens I was thrown by his very unique falsetto voice, but after a couple of listens it began to grow on me. I especially liked the songs “High” and “You’re Beautiful” which I wore out by listening to so much. One line in particular from “You’re Beautiful” struck me every time I listened: “She caught my eye as I walked on by…she could see from my face that I was fucking high.” I have somewhat of a weak spot for the use of “fuck” in a song, especially when an artist very rarely uses it in songs.

A couple of months after I started listening to the CD I noticed articles from across the pond starting to pop up… Blunt was rising in the charts and soon dethroned Coldplay… an astonishing feat. After being released in the US, Blunt once again climbed the charts with “You’re Beautiful” becoming the first British artist to top the American singles chart in nine years (since Sir Elton, whose wedding he recently was invited to play at). Wow, right?

The thing is, Blunt’s voice is very different and it’s the kind of voice that a lot of people are not going to like…and it is definitely a voice that a lot of people have learned to loathe do to its overzealous radio play and media saturation (commercials, etc.)

That’s what has happened… I’ll admit it, even I am over that song. Hey, they changed the lyric from “fucking high” to “flying high” for the radio edit. Lame. A lot of my friends are over him too. My good friend Lauren is bugged out by his “crazy Tom Cruise eyes” as seen in his recent SNL performance (I agree…he had some creepy eye issues during that performance. I think maybe he opened his eyes too wide and didn’t blink enough and didn’t really know where to look. Ok, I am getting creeped out thinking about it.) Steven says that he’d have to bring a shot gun to the show if he were seeing him. Don’t worry Blunt fans, I am sure he was exaggerating, and if not the Riv has good security.

My friends aren’t the only ones lashing back at his quick rise to fame. Parodies (and horribly unfunny parodies at that) have been springing up everywhere in response to his (kind of boring) video for “You’re Beautiful.” Despite numerous “Best new artist” awards he also was given the “Worst Album” award from NME and is berated by most indie magazines in general. Many claim his voice is unpalatable while others claim that he is mainstream, inoffensive formulaic music churned out by a marketing mastermind. Oh, and apparently his name has become Cockney Rhyming Slang… which if you know anything about that is no good indeed.

So, that was a little bit more than a little bit of background. Oh well. Where were we? Ah yes, the really very good “The Boy Least Likely To” has left the stage and Sarah and I have some pretty great seats that give a decent vantage point of Blunt (although sadly not the majority of his band who are adorably British and wonderful) and a cool view of the packed crowd (the show sold out crazy quick). Despite many of my friends having no kind words for Blunt, Sarah loves him and was getting me pumped up to see how he handled live performances.

And he handled it, for the most part, like a seasoned veteran. In the first couple of songs he rocked the stage with a great version of “Billy,” running back and forth at the very edge of the stage. The stage had a pretty cool setup too, with some pretty blinking light curtains dangling above and a projection screen backdrop that displayed some psychedelic imagery in the vein of his album’s cover art.

While he hadn’t totally ditched the crazy eyes (Sarah called them “piercing”) I thought he had less of a Tom Cruise look and more of a Chris Martin/Ian Somerhalder look. His conversation with the audience was pretty entertaining and humble, if not sometimes predictable (name dropping Chicago, shout outs to the balcony). The only moment that really bothered me was when he said something to the effect of “we have been all over the world and have been very lucky to travel around and see the world, and we have never been to a city that has an audience with so many hot women.” Eww… gross. It wasn’t like “hey, what a great looking audience” it was like “mmmm, look at all the girls.” No thank you to that. Now, I realize he probably says that every night to every crowd, but that doesn’t make it much better for me. Oh well, if that was his one strike, everything else was a homerun.

The highlights of the evening were two of his piano based songs. The better of the two was “Goodbye My Lover,” a heart-wrenching funeral ready song. During this performance Blunt stopped singing during the chorus and the whole theater was filled to the brim with the voices of the crowd singing for him. It was by far one of the best and most moving unsolicited sing-a-longs I have ever witnessed (and unsolicited are the best.) The other, “No Bravery” accompanied a video Blunt shot himself while stationed in Kosovo as a Captain in the British Army. The songs lyrics “I see no bravery, no bravery, in your eyes anymore, only sadness” gained new life and depth in this context and you could hear the feeling seeping through in Blunt’s voice.

The rest of the performance was right on par. While some album songs were sadly missing, notably “Tears & Rain,” Blunt played a handful of new songs that his fans will love but will probably not convert any non-fans to his cause.

For an encore, Blunt played a very admirable cover of the Pixies’ song “Where Is My Mind.” Unfortunately it didn’t look like there were any fans of the Pixies in the room (or of Fight Club.) Either that or they were all just ready for his final song, which was predictably “You’re Beautiful.” It was a decent performance, although I had been waiting to see how he would handle the “fucking” vs. “flying” lyric and it was a total cop out… he just shut up and let the audience sing their desired lyric at that point. Oh well.

So, in the end I was very happy with James Blunt’s live performance. It reaffirmed why I enjoy him and his album. And so, I will hold my head up high (fucking high) against the rising tide of critics and in spite of over exposure and let the world know that I am a James Blunt fan. And I was listening to him before he got big, so there!

Google search for “James Blunt Sounds Like”

• …a girl
• …a flamingo
• …a eunuch
• … he means every word and I thank him for his sincerity.

Google search for “James Blunt Looks Like”

• …a rugged Keanu Reeves
• …satan on The Passion
• … a serial rapist
• …if horse had sex with fred durst (sic)

Google Results for “I Love James Blunt” vs “I Hate James Blunt”

16,100 to 369 (add 21 more for “I Fucking Hate James Blunt)

Google results for “James Blunt” and “Bluntly”

828 matches. I guess I wasn’t as original as I’d like to believe.