AN EVENING WITH JAMES BAY
James Bay, the soulful voice behind the hit songs, “Hold Back The River” and “Let It Go” explores a different direction in time for his sophomore album release, “Electric Light” with more synth and style. The English singer/songwriter commenced his North American tour in the Emerald City rousing applause from fans in a fairly intimate setting performing cuts from his first album, “Chaos And The Calm”, and a few of his new tracks which will debut later this year.
In a stripped down stage at the Show Box in Seattle, James clearly reinvents himself as a more glammed up troubadour reminsicent of the aesthetic flair of rock legends such as Prince and David Bowie, ditching the signature long locks and fedora for sequined jackets and a shorter do. And although Bay seemed to have succumbed inevitably to the formulaic transition to a more modern pop sound which is quite a departure from his indie rock roots, Bay’s vocals maintain an intense allure, and the lyrical quality of some of his newer ballads are expected to strike a chord with his audience.
THE ART OF FORMATION
When the visual album "Lemonade" was dropped early Spring in 2016, Beyonce - arguably the biggest recording artist in the world at the moment - revealed a side of herself that has not been disclosed quite as openly as before. That of a woman scorned, questioning the integrity of her marriage. The songs within her second visual album are better heard and experienced - well, visually - largely in part to nuanced lyrics in tandem with dramatically recited prose prefacing each track. Infidelity, anger, revenge, apathy, pain, racial injustice, and redemption are beautifully chronicled in an almost impossible yet perfectly put-together ensemble of tunes, enhanced further by an audiovisual spectacle referencing dream-like memories and film noir aesthetic with an elevated urban twist.
The Formation World Tour, a two-hour, one-woman show that scraps everything one would expect from Beyonce's prolific catalog of music, lives up to the expectation set initially by "Lemonade". Beyonce unleashes a re-contextualization of her songs in unexpected overtures and transitions, with powerhouse choreography almost too artsy for the average concert-goer. Her older material is given new life through segmentation and omission; her new music packaged as an unconventional fusion of sound and visuals projected time and time again through a rotating, high-def screen of astronomic proportions. Just like a perfect glass of lemonade, the Formation World Tour effectively merges the sweet with the sour.
WE ALL DREAM IN GOLD
Mise en scene is defined as "the arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a play". In cinematic terms, it is the collection of all the elements visible within the frame: the setting, the props, the actors, the weather. Though clearly, performing live in front of an audience sounds immeasurably more challenging, nuance is the essence in film that sets it apart from the colossal scheme of theater. Viewers are pulled in by the majesty and grandeur of live stage productions, reliant mostly on the painstaking coalescence of set, light, and sound. In a live performance, an actor is powered predominantly not by the expression of his face, but by the volume of his voice; and without it, there is nothing.
Through illumination, his stage presence is made apparent, but if his voice is not heard well, he becomes a cause lost within the mise en scene,
dwarfed and obfuscated by the larger-than-life spectacle of set and light. Such is the irony of acting in front of a live audience in contrast to acting in front of a camera
which picks up the tiniest movement and magnifies it a thousand fold - whether it be the twitch of a lip, a gush of wind through the strands of one's hair, or the nascent sign
of tears at the corner of the eye.
This year's best actors in film all have one thing in common: nuanced performances that stand out stunningly from the mise en scene.
EMINEM x RIHANNA
What happens when the king of risqué rap takes the stage with the queen of risqué pop? Pure entertainment mayhem. That’s exactly what Eminem and Rihanna brought to the stage during the explosive opening of their highly anticipated Monster Tour at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena over the weekend. The two-time collaborators on the hits, "Love The Way You Lie", and "Monster" are slated for a 6-city tour all across North America this summer.
The co-headlining shindig of 2 of music’s most prolific hitmakers features a set of 47 songs split up into 5 acts. Eminem was on top of his rap game as he spits the Marshall Mathers LP 2 carrier single “Rap God” live. The elaborately-lit stage or the flashy chains aside, all Mr. Mathers needs to bring down he house is a mic, his hype man Mr. Porter, and DJ, Alchemist.
As for Rihanna, she brought a lot of sex appeal to her performances as she gyrated and dutty wined to many of her hit singles which included, “Rude Boy”, “What’s My Name”, and of course, the 2007 smash, “Umbrella”. Rihanna filling in for other females on Eminem’s lineup, like Dido on “Stan” and Hayley Williams for “Airplanes” was a refreshing twist. But aside from her Bajan dance moves and more upbeat EDM tracks, she managed to slow things down via sultry renditions of her popular ballads, “Diamonds”, and “Stay”.
