Buffalo Canalside – 18th July 2019

Setlist: Hank, Ring The Bells, Say Something, Leviathan, Nothing But Love, P.S., Laid, What’s It All About, Come Home, Many Faces, Getting Away With It (All Messed Up), Sometimes.

Review: Jeff Miers at Buffalo News

I walked into Canalside on Thursday expecting an enjoyable nostalgia trip co-headlined by a pair of the finest English bands of the 1980s/early ’90s alternative rock era. I left having had what felt an awful lot like a religious experience.

That religious experience was delivered by james, the often daring, deeply melodic Manchester-born band best known to American audiences as the group responsible for the infectiously risqué 1993 hit “Laid,” from the album of the same name.

James has not performed in our region for more than 20 years, during which time the group took a brief hiatus, then reformed with its strongest lineup and started delivering a string of brilliantly in-the-moment albums, the latest of which, “Living in Extraordinary Times,” numbers among the finest of its career.

I’m not sure what people, myself included, might have been expecting from james after all this time, but what we all got on this thick, steamily sunlit early evening was one of the most striking performances ever to grace the Canalside stage.

Singer Tim Booth arrived on the boards looking a bit like an ascetic monk/rock star hybrid. He spent the next hour-plus acting as a shaman, taking us all to a church where tough questions were asked, real answers were sought, and, at times, true transcendence was attained.

Booth, with guitarist/cellist Adrian Oxaal, guitarist/violinist Saul Davies, bassist Jim Glennie, drummer David Baynton-Power, keyboardist Mark Hunter, trumpeter/percussionist Andy Diagram and percussionist/vocalist Chloe Alper, wasted no time getting right up in the Canalside crowd’s face with new material.

“Hank” announced itself via an ominous, strident strut, atop which Booth summoned a serpentine melody with lyrics summoning a bleak modern landscape: “This crackhead’s tiny fingers/accusing you of what he’ll do/White fascists in the White House/More beetroot in your Russian stew.”

The band’s collective sound was impressively thick and immersive, but Booth – delivering a new song most likely unfamiliar to the majority of the crowd – came through loud and clear. “Now you can tell me to go back where I came from, Buffalo,” he said, as the song ended.

This incredibly dramatic entrance might have suggested ill portent, but Booth spent most of the rest of the show intimating that he and the band were more about healing than pouring salt in open wounds. By the time the band eased its way into the “Laid” gem “Say Something,” a tune bathed in yearning and a desire to communicate across borders, Booth had hopped off the stage, sauntered through the pit area, and entered the crowd, held aloft by fans as he sang the tune’s indelible refrain like a clarion call. Goosebump time.

Much of the set concentrated on new material, which was passionately delivered and exuberantly received by most of the crowd. (There’s always someone at a show who takes it upon themselves to yell, “Enough with the new album, play the old stuff,” and that dude happened to be right near me, though he appeared to be expressing a minority opinion.)

One of the more poignant moments in a show well-stocked with them came during “Many Faces,” the chorus of which – “There’s only one human race/Many faces/Everybody belongs here” – became a song-ending singalong. Hearing these words ringing out across the waterfront in Buffalo, a city of immigrants, was incredibly moving.

Just as moving was final encore “Sometimes,” an anthemic piece that is more spiritual paean than pop song. “Sometimes/When I look deep in your eyes/I swear I can see your soul,” Booth sang. And we knew exactly what he meant.

To be brutally honest, there was not much left for the Psychedelic Furs to do, following james’ set. But the band – particularly singer Richard Butler and saxophonist Mars Williams, who absolutely slayed it throughout – seemed to perhaps have been inspired by the high bar set by their predecessors.

The Furs are no strangers to Buffalo audiences – they stop here pretty much every time they’re on tour – but the Canalside show was the most energetic and darkly magical of the dozen-plus I’ve seen over the years.

 

Review by Even The Stars

James’ long US tour with the Psychedelic Furs rolled into Buffalo last Friday night, the band’s first performance in the city for twenty-five years. IKWIHF covered the show for us, noting the band’s appeal to a younger audience who connected to the newer songs from Living In Extraordinary Times and the message in those songs.

It’s a hot humid day in Buffalo. James are playing at the Canalside Park, on a stage about 40-50 metres from the canal. It’s an interesting setup for this outdoor concert: about 400-500 people paid an extra $30 for VIP tickets which meant that they had an area of 100 metres in front of the stage blocked off for their exclusive use, plus about 30-40 toilets and a huge bar area for which two drink tickets are included in the price. Others who had paid just the $10 ticket price were on the other side of the barriers.

Due to the strict 10pm curfew, Dear Boy started at 5:55 and played until 6:30. James started at about 6:50 and were on for sixty-five minutes, whereas the Psychedelic Furs on at about 8:30.

For the first time on this tour, James were joined by their 8th touring member, Chloe Alper as keyboardist/ percussionist/ backing vocalist, who unfortunately had run into visa issues which took a while to sort out.

As a result of having the full touring band together, the night started with the James drum corps introducing the crowd to Hank. Tonight this song sounds just breathtaking live. Oddly enough though, the anti-Trump lyrics of Hank seem to result in a noticeable pause in a lot of the older members of the audience, whereas the younger concert goers join in with James rather enthusiastically. And at the end of the song, Tim Booth can’t help but state he’ll be told to go back to where he came from. Saul, never one to let an opener to be passed over, asks if that means Tim will be going back to California where he’s been living the past few years.

James then work hard and succeed to draw in the entire audience with old standards Ring The Bells and Say Something. Three other Laid album songs are well received by the entire crowd, with title track Laid making a surprise appearance mid set and bringing the audience to a peak of joyful exuberance.

Through the main set, James go on to do wonderful performances of three more Living In Extraordinary Times songs: Leviathan, What’s It All About and Many Faces. Curiously, the audience age gap issue that was apparent at the start of the night with album opener Hank reappears with each of these three songs. This is particularly the case with the main set closing pro-humanity sing along Many Faces. Many older attendees are quite hesitant to respond to the positive message of the song, whereas younger audience members join in wholeheartedly.

This audience divide comes to a head as James momentarily leave the stage before an encore. Younger audience members cheer wildly for more, whereas a lot of older attendees are rather non-committal.

As before though, upon their encore stage return James work hard and succeed in drawing everybody on board with the deft delivery of Getting Away With It and the old singalong Sometimes. Everyone seems to be happy at the close of James performance, and the band hold hands and bow to the audience before decamping.

As has happened at the other James shows I’ve been to in July, younger audience members leave in droves once the band has finished for the night. This night though, due to the curious VIP arrangement, they are replaced by a number of far older attendees who have spent the evening in the large VIP bar tent.

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