James Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA September 15, 2008

Sep 15

AndrewAlternative Rock, Britpop No Comments

James was transcendent. The sound problems from the night before were fixed (if anything, they overcompensated by lowering the mics too far down) but everything about this show was otherwordly. The band came out and launched into Laid and from there wove a number of hits and fan favorites among their new material. It was clear that their fans were out in force tonight. People in the audience knew the words to every song, even the relatively obscure Lullaby and enthusiastically sang along to the new tracks, of which my favorite tonight was Whiteboy with Tim Booth wagging his finger along to the audience.

Of the new material, Oh My Heart featured an addictive James harmonies between lead singer Tim Booth and uber-saxophonist Andy Diagram (who hadn’t worked with the band since Seven). Waterfall, which was released as a single on iTunes ahead of the U.S. release of the album, is heavenly in the live setting. And the slow burn intro of I Wanna Go Home builds the entire song to a crescendo that comes crashing down with the last line “My heart is dying, dying.”

Booth introduced Upside by saying, “This is the sound of a breaking heart.” During the song, a planned pause stretched for over a minute while Booth sat patiently like a statue and the crowd went crazy. Finally, he shushed everyone to hear the melody that was playing softly to cue the song back up. He introduced Hey Ma, the new album’s title track, by saying that all politicians should have to resign the day after they declare war because “they failed as politicians.” They started Hey Ma and had to abort because of a mishap with Larry Gott’s guitar. But he just picked up another and Booth joked, “we aren’t allowed to play a political song tonight,” before they started the song from the beginning.

It was, quite frankly, a monstrous concert for such a intimate venue clocking in at a little over two hours. Sometimes closed the main set with a five-plus minute sing a long between the bandmates and the crowd, just chanting “Sometimes, when I look in your eyes I can see your soul.”

James came back on stage for an extended encore. During She’s a Star, Tim Booth went into the audience to touch hands, never missing a beat to the song. He went up in to the upstairs area of the venue and then came back down to the main floor and hopped on to the bar and sang much of the song from there. It’s unclear whether they planned to play anything after Born of Frustration but Booth asked if anyone had a train to catch (well…probably someone did, though no one would admit it). They played Lullaby, then launched in Don’t Wait That Long and finally, played Come Home.

There’s a story there too. Last night, (though I thought it was insignificant at the time) early in the set, a guy in the audience asked if he could play guitar on Come Home. Tim Booth looked at him and said, “Sure, if it was on our setlist. Are you going to be here tomorrow night?”

Well, and that guy, one Jonah Soolman, was in the audience again tonight and was invited on stage to play Come Home. Saul Davies gamely handed off the guitar and banged a tambourine during the song. Jonah was fucking ecstatic, and rightly so. Transcendent. There’s no other word for it.

James Setlist
Laid
Seven
Oh My Heart
Ring the Bells
Waterfall
Bubbles
Say Something
Five-O
I Wanna Go Home
Out to Get You
Upside
Hey Ma
Sit Down
Sound
Whiteboy
Tomorrow
Sometimes
Encore
She’s a Star
Born of Frustration
Lullaby
Don’t Wait That Long
Come Home