Live Review: James Gillespie - Lafayette, London 30/03/2022
After countless postponements and rearrangements, this past Wednesday evening James Gillespie finally got to take the stage in the gorgeous Lafayette, up by King’s Cross, supported by Lume.
After an incredibly stirring show at St Pancras Old Church back in December - released back in February as a live album for anyone wishing to check it out — Lafayette marks the end of a short string of shows, a mini tour encompassing both New York and Los Angeles as well as a generous handful of UK dates, and a long-awaited one at that. The venue was packed long before James took to the stage; a perfect crowd for his support.
Walking on stage almost self-consciously, as she took to a white keyboard placed centrally in the stage, came Brighton-based Northerner Lume. With gentle, blue, hexagonal lights cascading over the crowd, Zara’s gentle, soulful, low-fi-synth-laden croon washed over the venue. Understated, delicate vocals combined with a cheerful and grateful smile won the crowd over instantly, while her wonderfully entrancing songs kept everyone mesmerised, not least of which was second track Skin, about how no amount of time with someone is ever enough; depressingly apt when it comes to live music.
“What an amazing venue, what an amazing crowd. It all feels so shiny and new!”, she gushed, before launching into the opening track of her new EP, Venus. A transition into bleeding red lighting signified a flip into the aesthetically and emotional dark, with the synth-y bass becoming almost oppressive, while the smoke emanating softly from the ceiling gave the whole thing an ethereal, otherworldly feel; perfectly suited for a certain powerful Roman Goddess.
Soon after came the vocoder-based Days to Come. Vocoder songs, often bereft of any other instrumentals, always feel special live; this was no different. Fragile, twisting harmonies and an entranced audience gave the whole set a dusting of magic.
All too soon it was time for her set to come to a close. However, final track Edge of my Seat seemed a perfect way to end. The title track of her sophomore EP, the instrumental adornments here seemed minimal, with Lume choosing instead to rely solely on her tender vocals and standing out all the better for it. Simply a fantastic set.
James Gillespie, walking on stage a short while later, could not really have looked less like a star. As he emerged from the depth of the stage, a pre-recorded audio track playing, dressed in a hoodie and some tracksuit bottoms, with a guitar hanging from his neck, he might as well have been someone rehearsing in their (inadequately soundproofed) garage. “Let’s do this”, he croaked, the only indication that he was the main act for the evening, before breaking into Hold Me Down. A deep, husky voice over reverberating guitar strums floated over the crowd, but that just seemed standard singer-songwriter stuff.
And then the chorus hit. And here, the hype began to explain itself. James stands out as one of the few artists to be effortlessly better live than on record, and that’s saying something with how good the tracks are on record. Live, his grit-filled vocals seem as broken and spent as they do pained, stirring and chillingly good, as his subtle guitar plucks and subtle touches of electronica simply serve to frame it all.
And yet second track Run immediately flipped it on its head. The ‘subtle’ disappears, as prominent blues-esque guitar riffs provide an inexorably powerful lead to shape both the track and the echoing synth that reverberates around the room, while James’s incredible vocals seem to take a back seat to his equally impressive instrumentals.
Meanwhile, early release Good Life saw breathy, raspy vocals erupt into passionate roars with the crowd hanging on every moment, while Don’t Let Me Get Me saw the crowd, en masse, singing every word to James’s self-reflective standout.
Yet, even with the often depressing topics, James kept it light. When he says that “the best thing about on tour is just getting to hang out with your mates”, you believe him, and not just because he leads the crowd in a frantic cheer for his guitar technician Josh, egging them on into a rising cacophony of applause. Rather, he just seems that genuine. When a cry arises from the audience that he sounds “like an Angel”, he becomes all self-conscious smiles, despite the rather heavy subject matter. When he whips out an acoustic guitar and launches into heavy hitter Rescue Me, his conscious step back from the mic throughout most of the choruses lets the crowd’s collective voice wash over him; live music rescuing him (and us all) from the isolation of lockdown, if only belatedly. And when he switches to keys - “ah keyboard, my old enemy” - and breaks into Dead In The Water, adding the multi- before the instrumentalist part of his moniker, you simply see a guy humbled by by fans yet comfortable in his skin. The near-falsetto vocals here also served to show that his control over his instruments extends to his voice too. No moment became overwhelming or disingenuous, because each moment was like an intimately shared secret that only we could enjoy.
After flying through the poignant Foolish Love, it’s back to guitar. But first, James asks for the house lights to be raised so he can finally see and wave to the hundreds of fans packed into the small room. It wouldn’t be hasty to say that the rooms won’t stay this small for long; his voice is made for stadiums, and it won’t be long before his fan base catches up. But for now, we all enjoyed the intimacy. The anthemic Beyond Today was resoundingly loud in the room as everyone sang along, while the upbeat, made-for-dancing tune Didn’t Know (a song of of producers Decco that he had featured on) cemented his place in the staggeringly short list of singer-songwriters who make their name with the mournfully melancholy and switch incredibly successfully into the wholesomely happy. The similarly bouncy Gone Are The Days - originally performed with prolific pianist and producer Kygo — seemed to blend these two extremes; pained verses with catchy choruses.
The ‘final’ song Someday Sundays, however, really drove that home. Armed with an acoustic guitar at the front of the stage, the song is all about escaping, getting away from your usual life; the track’s positivity took us all away from the dreary March weather. Some improvised scat (the jazz kind) over the guitar strums gave it all an added layer of entrancing enjoyment, and had everyone in the room moving. But it was the sudden and unexpected (and apparently unplanned) mash up with reggae-ska-punk-chaotic-feel-good band Sublime’s Caress Me Down — in Spanish — that really made the song a highlight, even if simply out of the sheer fun of it all.
Here is where, traditionally, a band would have left the stage for a few minutes and have the crowd scream their names. But, as thankfully is so often the case nowadays, James forgo this in exchange of just playing a couple more songs.
Daredevil, still to have its studio release (but available in the afore mentioned live album), came first. James seemed even more raw than usual here, which is saying something; perhaps the combination of a lyrically heartbreaking song and its status as unreleased, unknown music for the fans in attendance let it feel a little more vulnerable. A truly lovely song, but you can’t end on a new one regardless of how lovely it is. So, instead, to no one’s surprise, came What You Do. His debut single, and comfortably his most streamed (non-Kygo) song in his back catalogue, What You Do is a gentle, winding number with rich lyricism and,m sparse instrumentals; it exists simply to expose James’s soul. It builds, both in strength and catharsis, and has a hook that stays with you long beyond the last notes fade into the ether. Live, it’s fantastic. It’s also open enough to let James truly let loose vocally, as he went from strength to strength; passionate cries here, gentle croons there. A sonic masterclass.
A final promise from the humbly beaming James to come out to the merch desk and meet everyone after having a quick smoke, and a final thank you to his friends and the venue itself, and that was that. But the talent on display won’t be forgotten quickly, and the sense of entertainment and fun will linger way past the intricacies of the night fade away; and it won’t be long before he’s back, bigger and better than ever.
A fantastic night led by two fantastic artists, full of surprises that kept the mesmerised crowd trying to guess just what would happen next. What more could you want?
Words by James O’Sullivan
Photography by Kevin O’Sullivan
