James Blunt at Vicar Street | Review

James Blunt at Vicar Street, Dublin, 28th of February 2014

“I’m a small man,” says James Blunt, ukulele in hand, halfway through his Vicar Street set, “So I like to play instruments that make me look bigger. Sometimes I take this into the bedroom too.”

It’s nearly 10 years since James Blunt’s debut album ‘Back to Bedlam’ (I bet that makes you feel old). He, recently, has become more known as the man behind some hilarious, self-deprecating Twitter responses than the creator of sappy, radio-friendly pop.

It’s some of that self-deprecating humour that makes the man tolerable. “I have a lot of extended family over there,” he says when an unexpected cheer rises up from a section of the audience. “I’m sweating like a rapist,” he says at one point standing up from his piano.

It’s an attitude that required of him to save the show from cringing cheesiness. Right from the opening track Face the Sun where, in the most Westlife-y way possibly, he rises to his feet at the key change; through I’ll Take Everything, where he thrusts one finger to the air at the end of each repetition of chorus; it’s hard to take the man seriously.

He even seems to celebrate successfully completing Goodbye My Lover. He stands up from his piano, clench fist raised. It’s as if Alan Shearer has been giving him lessons in celebration.

“Dublin is the best place in the world,” he says. He also says that he delighted when an Irish crowd sing along because it’s always in better tune than anywhere else in the world. It seems like empty flattery, but the crowd eat it up.

Having said that, when the crowd does sing on their own, it does sound like a beautiful choir is taking over. It is a choir that is much needed on High, as Blunt seems in no way capable of hitting the chorus’s high notes.

For most of the rest of the show he hits all of the right notes, both literal and figurative. He hops around the stage with a smile on his face; he interacts with the audience and has them sing his lyrics back to him; he keeps the flow going by interspersing upbeat song among the slower, more introspective ones.

It doesn’t all work though and songs like So Far Gone, Heart To Heart and No Tears float from the speaker over the audience and into the walls without ever really getting traction. The very same could be said for the first two songs of the encore, Stay the Night and Bonfire Heart. Billy, meanwhile, sounds like the closing track to a cheesy teen film.

When things do go right though, it’s hard not to get caught up in it. The nonsensical lyrics of Wisemen will get you going. So will the relentlessly happy mood of Postcards. Goodbye My Lover is actually a fine song (though we’ll never admit to typing that) and So Long Jimmy and 1973 get even reluctant heads bobbing and reluctant feet tapping.

Even the dirge that is You’re Beautiful, which he dedicates to a reviewer in the audience (no, not us), is uplifting live. James Blunt is a good live act. His wit and charm just about rises above the cheesiness and his songs are so much more lively than on his records. It’s just a shame he doesn’t have more good ones.