James Blunt performance to reopen Palladium

RIGA - Popular music comes in various colors. It offers electrified dance tunes and digital sound effects. There are also artists who perform using only their voices with the supporting band making music that is more sincere and simple. This is where we can put the singer James Blunt. His modest approach to music is ready to re-open the used-to-be movie theater Palladium, in Riga, which is now turned into a concert hall. The show is on Sept. 30.

James Blunt, born James Hillier Blount in 1974, is a very interesting person. Being a son of a colonel of the British armed forces, a singing career was the last thing on his mind. During his own service in the military, Blunt participated in many military campaigns, including the NATO deployment in Kosovo. Years later, when army life was behind him, he was ready to fulfill another dream – music. Today this dream has secured him Brit Awards, MTV awards and even five Grammy nominations. Naturally, Blunt’s music derives from his life experience, sounding very serious and melancholic at the same time. That has made him a welcome guest at various musical festivals. The current tour will see him performing in Germany, France and other countries. For Baltic fans James Blunt also sings in Tallinn on Sept. 29 and Kaunas on Oct. 1.

Just as interesting, even controversial, is his music. Those who had lived with the increasing number of technologies in music in 2005 had definitely seen a surprise in Blunt. His “Back to Bedlam” album transformed Blunt from a soldier into a musical sensation. The tracks You’re Beautiful and Goodbye My Lover became Blunt’s trademarks, and probably the simplicity and easiness was the key to his success. This is how the audience learnt about him yesterday, and supposedly this is how we perceive him today. The albums “All The Lost Souls” and “Some Kind Of Trouble” experiment with musical arrangements, yet they do not change the overall style, which mixes pop, folk and rock in his music – giving it a bit of an acoustic sound.

Nevertheless, Blunt is accused of being too boring and predictable, lacking musical depth and emotional involvement. Yet, he travels around the globe with many concert halls being sold out. Why? This accusation is basically a preconception of those who favor variability rather than musical consistency. Blunt sticks to ballads, rejecting too many modifications, which fascinate both women and men. While the non-believers state the mediocre and insipid lyrics of You’re Beautiful, where “my life is brilliant, my love is pure, I saw an angel, of that I’m sure,” the admirers point out the artist’s fantastic writing abilities in ‘No Bravery,’ as ‘brothers lie in shallow graves’ because the war can generate ‘no bravery in your eyes anymore, only sadness.’
So what is the real criterion when we choose music? Hopefully, the dedication by the artist! And it needs to be said that Blunt has all the dedication he needs to be a sold-out artist.

This artist is almost exceptional, and that is another aspect as to why the concert at Palladium needs to be on everyone’s event list. Palladium Movie Theater was created in 1913 serving as an important place to socialize in Riga. Today it starts working as a concert hall, wishing to retain its former glory. With the maintenance of the theater’s round form it can really make the connection between the past and the present. Additionally, only 1,600 tickets are offered for Blunt’s concert, hence, the event is exclusive. In a way, Palladium ensures the level of intimacy which allows feeling the artist’s music in full, letting every visitor enjoy a great effect of presence. This is what the personality of James Blunt is about – a cultural delicacy you do not want to forget.

Tickets can be found on www.bilesuserviss.lv