Ray Lamontagne at The Symphony Hall, Birmingham
I have read a few reviews lately about some of Ray Lamontagne’s gigs as he travels the world singing songs from his last four albums. Of the reviews that I have managed to read, the majority have been somewhat negative, focusing on his lack of ’stage presence’ and disengagement with the audience expressed through his silence in between songs, all of which he tends to lose ’stars’ for on the rating systems of critics and reviewers. To me, this is all a little unfair…and if that is truly what the audience is desperately seeking, then they should be booking Robbie Williams seats instead and they will no doubt come out of the arena full of satisfaction from seeing a showman, rather than a true genius.
Last night I witnessed an amazing gig at The Symphony Hall in Birmingham, with Ray Lamontagne and his impressive band injecting patience and calm into my very busy world. As soon as ray started to sing it felt like an invisible umbilical chord was linking me to pure soulfulness. Gently delivering an array of tracks, old and new, including for me the highlight of the night, ‘If there’s something wrong with my baby there’s something wrong with me’, Lamontagne’s voice was awesome, as always, with my only criticism having to go to the Birmingham audience itself.
From the word go, it was obvious that people were extremely fidgety in The Symphony Hall, and unprepared for the kind of gig they were about to see. Many of the audience managed to stay still, but there seemed to be a constant flurry of interruption as people went back and forth to the toilet and bar, in the middle of songs, as though they were bored or at the wrong gig. Perhaps people are used to being guided on how to listen to something; in that case it is no surprise that Lamontagne’s complete silence in between tracks must have made them very uncomfortable. I was a little upset that people were a bit disrespectful to an artist of this calibre, and I wondered if they had even listened to the album, or if the bigger venue had beckned a certain group of listeners who had just heard it was cool somewhere, but would actually have been better placed at a James Blunt gig.
