NeonApple

Friday, April 07, 2006

James Blunt was in San Francisco with Me!

Last night I was with James Blunt at his concert at the Warfield. So maybe I wasn't exactly "with" him unless you consider a couple thousand people venue as being an intimate rondevouz. Ok - I was only there for the concert with the teeming masses and I was with the husband but a girl can dream can't she?

The husband was my official photographer of the event. He was great. It was too dark and far away for flash protography to be effective, plus that was prohibited, so he had to do super long exposures and try to keep the camera steady, which was not an easy task to accomplish in an estrogen filled room of dancing and swaying women along with the guys they dragged along to the show.

The opening acts, Sierra Swan and Boy Least Likely To were pretty cool and their music is on iTunes if you are interested.

James Blunt wonderful! The program was well rehearsed. The lighting was live and not pre-programmed. JB played at least 5 or 6 songs that aren't on the album and I am going to go crazy until I find out all the names of the new songs! I remember at least one new song name, Same As Day. The music and singing were live - no lip syncing - thank you very much. And the music had a harder edge to it than the Back to Bedlam album has - I really enjoyed that. It just shows how different the songs can be when performed live and also the difference between studio musicians whose playing has been homogenized by editing versus the energy of a live performance by the tour band.

JB did ask the audience to refrain from screaming and making noise during No Bravery and Goodbye My Lover" and for the most part the audience was. He also did jump on top of the speaker during one of the songs.

All in all - the JB concert was one of the best Birthday/Anniversay presents the husband has ever given me! We even got to have seats, since we were in the balcony! Other teeming masses were crammed onto the floor below. Oh I almost forgot to mention the husband and I ate at Original Joe's prior to the concert and while we were walking we found JB's tour bus! I fished out one of my business cards and wrote a note on the back of it and put it under the windshield wiper of the bus. Who knows if he'll ever get the note but it was fun never-the-less!

There were only 2 downsides of the whole evening: I know that artists only really make money off their touring, since the record companies take most of the money from the album sales unless the artist also has written the music, then they get some $$ from the album. All the tickets for the concert were a face value of $25 and I know that most of the people there had to buy them from second market vendors or off of eBay for much higher like we did. Our 2 tickets cost us $150 and I know that tickets in the lower sections of the balcony were going for $299+ per seat! Crazy! It's such a shame that JB won't see any of that $$ from the second market ticket scalpers. The other downside was that as we were leaving the theater, I totally missed the bottom 2 stairs and strained my ankle pertty badly. So now I am stuck with propping it up and icing it today.

I am, however, so glad we went to the concert! I didn't get to bed till 1am and the husband stayed up even later to clean up the pics but it was worth it!



More pics from the 04/06/06 James Blunt Concert at the Warfield in San Francisco!

7 Comments:

  • Neonapple,

    Thanks for the review, very well done!

    Thank your husband as well for the wonderful pictures!

    OK, you want to know the othr songs he sang? In the order he performed them here is the set list from the show:

    Breathe
    Billy
    High
    Cry
    Goodbye my lover
    Coz I luv you (Slade Cover song)
    Tears and rain
    I really want you
    Out of my mind
    No bravery
    Same mistake (Not Same as Day..LOL)
    Wise Men
    So long, Jimmy

    Encore:

    where is my mind(Pixies cover song)
    You're Beautiful

    Thanks again...

    Rhino (From the JB Message Board)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:36 AM  

  • Wonderful photos, I don't think I've ever seen a better photo of the entire band playing on stage. Given that they were taken in the dark and without a flash, they're very impressive.

    Thanks for the review also, it's nice to read about someone else's concert experience.

    I hope your ankle is feeling better :)

    Cheers, Winnie
    (napasah from the JB message board)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:49 AM  

  • Awesome review and pics! Thanks for sharing.

    BTW, my hubby bought mezzanine (seated) tickets off eBay ($$$) to see James Blunt in Detroit as my Valentine's Day gift! Appears that we are both married to a couple of pretty awesome men! :)
    (though my man hit the hay as soon as we got back from the concert, and left me to fix the pics! LOL)

    Glad you had such a cool time.

    Val (boatkitten from the JB boards)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:27 PM  

  • Love the pictures!!!! I actually was sitting not far from the two of you!!!! I remember seeing you *when I was scoping out everyones seats* I was there for my birthday/anniversary aswell! Great pictures and thank you for sharing if you dont mind I would love to link your blog from mine so others can see the pictures and drool lol. We drove 12 hours to see the pictures and it was soooooooooo worth it!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:56 PM  

  • Hi!

    Thank you so much for the pictures!
    I´m from Sao paulo, Brazil (praying for James came here someday !)

    All best

    Regina

    By Blogger regina0311, at 11:53 PM  

  • Wow Neon, you're blog is quite the hit today! Husband did take good photos! How did he manage to take them without getting light blurs, I have no idea. I hope your ankle is better and that it didn't keep you from work...

    By Blogger logoANN, at 11:39 AM  

  • hello neon, i was sitting in the lower lodge area next to the sound equipment. my tix only cost $55 which surprised me alot because other tixs were selling for over $100 on the same ticket website. Will you be going to the Coachella Music Festival in Indio CA (4/29-4/30). JB will be singing along w/Madonna on 4/30 with 20 other bands that I never heard of. tixs are $88 for now. camping on site is $35, and JB will be at the Star Lounge 98.7 FM radio station on May 1st in Burbank, CA (not too sure of that date) but it's a radio contest, no details on how to win yet.
    anyway, enjoyed your pics. disapointed thou that JB didn't have time to sign a few autographs after the show.
    Enjoy his music a lot. I have his DVD with all his music videos. Love it. Bought it from barnes and noble.com you should check it out because they show how they were made and their commentaries. JB must've been crazy jumping off an actual cliff at 75mph in the "Your Beautiful" video. ouch!! That's my favorite video ever. His other videos are strange. JB never gets the girl, he gets buried up to his head in sand, dragged thru the dessert, kidnapped and of course jumps to his death in the ocean. Wish he would make a happy video.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:34 PM  

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