James Morrison Rocks!

Went to see James Morrison perform at The Loft on Monday night.

It completely surpassed my expectations. I know about 4 of his songs, own two on iTunes. But I just thought he has a cool sounding voice, better than cool, exceptionally unique coarse voice that sounds nothing like him, so he would be a cool person to see live.

On the day of I was exhausted from the weekend, I wanted to get out of it. But I knew no one would pay me back full price for what I got for the ticket so I just packed up my energetic self and took the plunge. I arrived particularly late so I would avoid the smokiness of the venue. Yes, The Loft is a disheveled venue, where you are all left to stand and watch the artists while people weave in and out of your personal space, smoking, drinking, cursing, bopping their heads and at times dancing. It's a pity I still have to see Gavin DeGraw at this venue on Cinco De Mayo. Sad. For the love of Gavin. Some artists you prefer to see sitting down, listening to them intently. Like Smiths Olde Bar where I saw Toby Lightman. But what can you do?

So back to James. He surpassed my expectations. From the first note, I exclaimed at the thought that his voice sounds exactly the same live as on the CD. It's unfucking believable. Every note was on key. And it was awesome. And he looked surprisingly good, no more of that scruffy nerdy look. He had a neat haircut and stage swagger that I didn't expect. I didn't even imagine it.

There was a crowd which also surprised me, and they actually knew the songs too, I know, even more shocking. They knew the songs better than I did. Then, most importantly, he was funny, chatty (even though we couldn't understand a word of what he was saying in between that thick British accent) and very excited to be there. That's the odd thing about these foreign artists when they come to the US, they actually pour their hearts and souls into their performances, want to impress, and they do everything live, play the instruments live, sing live and there's no cockiness at all. The whole show is devoid of it and their performance is entirely sincere. I just think that's the way it should be. Raw and sincere.

There's also a difference when you hear someone sing a song they actually wrote, as opposed to someone just singing. There's more emotion involved, like they bring you with them with every note. He also did some covers of some songs I didn't expect him to sing and actually got the stiff but drunk crowd moving. It was also fucking hot at the venue which I think was intended so everyone would be forced to get an overpriced drink and in between the 3rd song he couldn't handle the heat. He said, he was pouring down sweat and no shit, so were we?

I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

This was slightly better than Adele. But only just.