OAKLAND — James Blake fans left Sunday’s Treasure Island Music Festival bummed because high winds forced the cancellation of the English art pop and alternative R&B artist’s set.
On Monday, he made it up to them.
Blake took the stage Monday night at The Fox Theater in Oakland for a make-up gig, with festivalgoers using their Treasure Island passes for free admittance. By the end, they rained applause on him as a thank you for the gesture.
“We were waiting to go on stage and, believe me, I was as disappointed as you were not to be able to play for you,” he told the crowd Monday. He said it gave fans a chance to see the show “without treading in water” hours after tweeting a video of the gusts and rain battering his gear on stage the night before.
Fans waited around the block to enter the venue for a show that was announced at approximately noon Monday.
In its own way, it was more satisfying than his set at Treasure Island might've been, unmooring Blake from the time constraints of festival performance and letting him sail through nearly two hours of material.
Joined by a percussionist and a multi-instrumentalist, each sat atop a riser to play his instruments as a bevy of lights fired and video screen displayed swirling orbs of light or, in the case of “I Need a Forest Fire,” a bird flapping its wings against a golden orange sky.
On occasion, the brightness and intensity of the lights was too much, with many fans shielding or closing their eyes. While Blake’s bass-rattling grooves set the tone, the aesthetic enhancements went a long way to complementing his digital glitchery.
His repertoire spanned from the echoing introspection of “The Wilhelm Scream” to the stomping groove of “Stop What You’re Doing.” It all fit under the umbrella thanks to Blake’s presentation. Although his setlist culled from each of his three LPs to date, it also served as a sort of anthology of his work, grabbing "Forward," his collaboration with Beyoncé, and his covers of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" and Feist's "Limit to Your Love."
For fans who have braved the elements not to see him a night earlier, it may not have played out exactly as planned, but it served as a satisfying end to a muddy, messy weekend on Treasure Island for the final installment of the festival.
Setlist
Always
Life Round Here
Choose Me
Timeless
Limit to Your Love
Our Love Comes Back
My Willing Heart
Love Me in Whatever Way
Stop What You’re Doing
Forward
I Need a Forest Fire
I Hope My Life (1-800 Mix) / Voyeur
I Mind
The Colour in Anything
Modern Soul
Retrograde
The Wilhelm Scream
Encore
A Case of You
Measurements
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