BLake Lewis Live @ The Canal Room!

NEW YORK, NY-I guess the new thing to do if you want to become a famous musician is to get yourself on some kind of reality show. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as you get that exposure and introduce yourself to the world through those big shiny television sets. It may seem like a cop out, it may be frowned upon by the people that paid their dues and worked their way up, waiting tables and scrubbing toilets, only to then go play a show to only three people that probably didn’t want to see them in the first place, but that’s a sham! Yes, there are some fakers that slip through the cracks, but there’s a lot more “nobodies” popping up all over the place that do have some serious talent and they’re zeroing in on a whole new method of “making it.”
I saw Blake Lewis the other night. In case you don’t remember him, he was a contestant on American Idol; just think Michael Jackson beat-boxing and Bon Jovi being looped over and over again, add in heavy bass beats and a lot of reverb and there you have it-Blake Lewis. Initially, I wasn’t planning on attending-this style of music doesn’t really tickle my fancy. But, alas, I was convinced otherwise and headed into downtown NYC to check the show out. This was, in fact, Blake’s first performance as an artist, not an Idol contestant, since the famed TV phenomenon aired with him making it to the finals on the sixth season-Blake was the first runner up, beat by Jordin Sparks. So, it was certainly a special and exciting night for the performer and his fans. And boy does he have fans! The Canal Room was pretty much filled with screaming “Blakies” (I don’t know if that’s what they’re called, but the media always makes up some ridiculous name to describe which contestant you’re a fan of, and so I came up with this), and much to my surprise, there were quite a few guys floating around in what I thought would be a sea of women.
At first thought, it’s easy to assume that maybe the guys were all there to see opener Brianna Taylor, but if that was the case then why would they have stuck around for Blake? There’s no denying that he brings a loyal fan base with him and that’s a good sign. But let’s just back up for one second here. Brianna Taylor. Recognize the name? She was most recently on MTV’s The Real World Hollywood, sporting bleach blonde locks and an in-your-face attitude, but trust me, she’s since changed. A good dye job made her hair a warm shade of reddish brown and that tough-girl act was wiped away with the first note she sang. Brianna took over the stage and captivated the crowd with her beautifully executed acoustic songs, something I wasn’t expecting at all. She’s actually got a really great voice and I’m sure that good things will come her way. She sang an intimate and soft version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” a favorite among the attendants. Her set was short, and as soon as she was done she graciously thanked the crowd and introduced the man of the hour, Blake Lewis.
It was actually really interesting to see what it is exactly that he does on stage. On American Idol we weren’t treated to seeing how talented Blake really is, because for each performance the backing tracks and sound effects were pre-recorded or he had a band supporting him. However, on this night, we saw a whole new side of Blake Lewis, the entertainer. He stood on stage with nothing else to back him up other than his voice, his acoustic guitar and his loop pedals as he proceeded to “wow” the audience. He starts off slow, coming up with a beat and spitting it into the mic, all the while focusing on recording himself as he sings. Once that’s recorded he loops it so that it plays continuously, and he then comes up with another element of the track, whether it be a human-made guitar chord, bass or drum effect. Once he records all of the different combining elements that in the end make the background track to which he’ll sing over with actual words, he does just that. So, what it is that you witness when seeing Blake Lewis live, is the creation of a song from start to finish, every single possible sound and element of that song being something that comes directly from him, it’s all his voice- pretty impressive.
There were a few slip ups along the way, like when he accidentally hit the wrong foot pedal and jumped right into a completely different beat that he had recorded, causing him to improvise much more than he had anticipated, but, the somewhat seasoned performer (I guess we can call him that now) recovered without hesitation or flaw and just mixed things up a little bit, creating a whole new, unexpected sound and song, making the crowd to go wild in support.
In retrospect, although as I said earlier that this genre of music isn’t what I’d go for first, it was still worth checking out and being introduced to a whole new means of entertainment, and I do have a new found appreciation for Blake Lewis (and American Idol for shedding light on talented people that would go otherwise unnoticed). He’s good.