I hate that it's taken me so long to write a blog on the James Morrison concert. I should have done one right away while the high and the excitement was fresh and still coursing through my veins. My blogging tardiness is in no way an indication of the quality of the concert. Oh, on the contrary! It was an amazing concert! You know how sometimes the only way to fully get across a strong emotion is to explain it in a curse? Well, this is one of those times. So I feel I must break one of my cardinal rules of blogging - thou shalt not curse. The concert was f***ing awesome! Listening to James Morrison on my ipod is an experience in itself, but hearing and seeing him LIVE only a feet from me was incredible. Here's how it went down:

We got to the venue at about a quarter to 6. Given that the doors opened at 7 and it was a general admission (standing only) venue, we were resigned to the fact that we were going to be standing way at the back. But to our surprise, the line was only about 50 or so people long. We took our place in line and we were right next to the Morrison tour bus! Here's a pic from my phone:



We hadn't eaten dinner yet, so hubby went to Subway to get some food. A few minutes after he left, I noticed that a few people were leaving the line to go talk to some people that were near the back door to the venue. I go to take a look at who they might be and lo and behold - it was James Morrison with his bandmates!! I instinctively start to grab my camera phone and head over to him when I realize that hubby was still buying food and there was no one to hold our place in line!! Just my luck. So I try to take a picture from where I was standing in line. But in my rush and haste to get my phone out of my purse, a bunch of my maxi-pads fall out of my bag. Lovely. I finally try to nab a picture and this is all I get:



If you look VEEERRRRYYY closely, you will see a pink hat peeking out from behind another guy. That's James Morrison's pink hatted head. That's all I got. Boo.

Just after 7 they let us through the doors and we managed to nab a great spot just off centre and to the left of the stage, about 4 rows of bodies back. The opening act was okay. Her name was Diane Birch and she's sort of got a country-bluesy-folksy vibe to her. She performed for a half hour or so.

Finally - James Morrison's band took the stage and the beginnings of 'The Only Night', the first song off his newest album was played. Just before the first verse was to start, James appeared on stage and sang the s*it out of that song. The mic was a bit soft for the first couple of songs and you could see James trying to signal to the sound person to put the sound up. But he still sounded incredible. RIght from the get-go, the audience was singing and vibing along to the music. Usually it's kind of annoying when everyone sings along. I mean, you came to hear the ARTIST sing. But this time it was so cool because the singing along came from a collective deep love and excitement for the music. If this is where we ended up/Then I refuse to be so hard on myself this time/If everything I have is gone/Then what is wrong/With spending time with yoooouuuu....

Sidebar note about Mr. Morrison:
James Morrison is an amazing lyricist. I've always thought this and it's one of the reasons why I love his music so much. Well, on an on-air radio interview that day, James was asked about his song-writing abilities and he revealed that he actually writes poetry. Now it all makes sense. And my respect for him has grown that much more.

James Morrison Setlist:
Prior to the concert, I tried to predict the order and songs of his concert setlist. You can see my preliminary predictions in the music playlist on the right. I was right about the order of the first two songs. Cool!

Setlist:
The Only Night
Under the Influence
Undiscovered
Please Don't Stop the Rain
Save Yourself
This Boy
You Make it Real
Broken Strings
Love is Hard
If You Don't Wanna Love Me
Precious Love
Nothing Ever Hurt Like You/Uptight (Stevie Wonder cover)
Call the Police

Encore:
You Give Me Something
Wonderful World
WIth a Little Help From My Friends (Beatles cover)



He sang most of my favourite songs. Standouts for me where: Please Don't Stop the Rain, This Boy, You Make It Real, Love is Hard, Undiscovered, Wonderful World. I was singing and bopping along the whole time. Actually, I was mouthing the words because I didn't want my voice to be caught on the plethora of recording devices around me. Midway through, even my hubby was really into it. I didn't think he would have a very good time because he was extremely tired from work and lack of sleep. But he was totally caught up in the whole experience.

I can't give a play-by-play detail of each song because this blog is already long enough and I'm getting tired. Let me just say that it was one of the most incredible concert experiences I've ever had. James Morrison sings with so much soul and energy and passion. That man BREATHES soul. It was an unbelievable sight to behold. I am definitely a fan for life and I will go to every concert he ever has here.

I just have one more thing to add. As his last encore song, he invited the opening act and her band to join him on stage and they did a clumsy and funny cover of "Have a Little Help From My Friends". They didn't know the words, save for the chorus so it was really entertaining to watch and laugh along with them. At the end of the song they all lined up together and bowed to the crowd:



THEN...

James Morrison's towel was flung into the crowd and ... my husband caught it!!! I have James Morrison's sweaty towel!!! It was still damp and everything! I wore it proudly around my neck on the way out. I wanted to get his autograph but we hightailed it to the car for fear that I would be mobbed for the sweaty towel.

So that was the concert, in a (rather lengthy) nutshell. It was incredible and it is a night that I will never forget.

Here are a couple of videos for you to enjoy:

The first one is James singing "You Make it Real" at the concert. Before you ask, no - that is not me singing in the background:



This video is James' song called "This Boy". Sad and touching song about a lost childhood. Absolutely love this song.



Well, I hope you enjoyed my recap. Go check out James Morrison's music if you aren't that familiar with him. Thanks for reading!