James at Spaceland

It was panic stations Thursday after James announced a gig for Friday night at Spaceland during their guest slot on the excellent KCRW show Morning Become Eclectic. Flight to Seattle cancelled, flight to Vancouver booked, tickets for the show purchased...

5 of the current line-up had made the short promotional trip over to LA - a teaser for the new CD 'Hey Ma' which comes out here in September. Despite being without their drummer and keyboard player James still sounded great - even more chilled and dreamy than usual if that's possible... The songs came mostly from Laid (their last US tour!) and the new album, which although not exactly exploring any uncharted James territory, skirts around a few familiar places you haven't visited for a while but have fond memories of... The band were joined for the encore 'Say Something' by the drummer from the support band Sky Parade (a piss poor Brian Jonestown Massacre imitation) and that sounded great - Saul Davies looking particularly relieved as he'd been sweating behind the kit for a couple of earlier songs...