This year I was able to attend two concerts of the European tour, on May 9th in Frankfurt and May 16th in Amsterdam. Accompanying James during this tour was a stripped down, "condensed but powerfull" band with only Jimmy Johnson (bass), Steve Gadd (drums) and Larry Goldings (keyboard) playing with James.
The Frankfurt concert took place in the wonderful Alte Oper, a nineteenth century building. The Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam was less beautifull, but had far better acoustics with less echo. Below I will review both concerts, the setlist was the same at both concerts so I'll only put that below the reviews once.
ReviewAt the start of the Frankfurt concert there were some slight audio problems, with James sounding far away and a lot of echos. Only during the third song of the set, Carolina in my Mind, this really got better.
Among the surprises in the setlist were some less known songs, like Lighthouse. This song would not have worked without backing vocals, which is why James brought a real-to-real tape recorder with backign tracks (recorded in the 70s). This solution worked pretty well, the recordings sounding good and James' guitar, voice blending perfectly with the backing tracks and the band. The same solution was used during Shower the People in the encores.
Also, Another Day was perfect. I have always liked that song and hearing it live was amazing. Of his more known songs the version they did of Sweet Baby James was the best I have ever heard, James' voice and guitar playing sounding as beautiful and perfect as ever. It was noticeble during both concerts that James does have to put some effort into catching higher notes sometimes, but that doesn't matter to me. His voice was warm and comforting as always.
Near the end of the concert, James got the crowd to sing along on You've Got a Friend (although the people in Amsterdam were very hesitant to do so) and from then on people started being a bit more interactive, clapping along on Shower the People and How Sweet it Is. The latter being played in a very much extended and great version, with some alternative ending I never heard before.
The band was perfect, even their singing was pretty good. It helped give a bit more body to some choruses. I must admit that because of this I did not even miss the back-up singers that much on most of the songs.
James was - as always - very humble and generous, staying on stage for more than half an hour to sign all kinds of things and shake hands at the Frankfurt concert; signing during the full intermission in Amsterdam. His jokes were as good as always, there even were a few new ones. E.g. before playing Up on the Roof he said that he heard that was "Mitt Romn ey's dog's least favourite song".
Luckily I was able to meet James briefly after both concerts
SetlistBlossom
Sunny Skies
Carolina
Everybody has the blues
Frozen Man
Walking Man
Steamroller
Slap leather
Don't let me be lonely tonight
Sweet baby James
Up on the roof
Another day
Lighthouse
Country Road
Little more time with you
Copperline
Something in the way she moves
Mexico
Fire and Rain
Your smiling face
You've got a friend
Shower the people
How sweet it is
You can close your eyes
