Blunt is his name, and he is not subtle

Blunt is his name, and he is not subtle
San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA
Ever take a long walk on a short pier? Shave your wrists with a rusty blade? Have a sword fight with an 18-wheeler? James Blunt knows how you feel. ...
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Ever take a long walk on a short pier? Shave your wrists with a rusty blade? Have a sword fight with an 18-wheeler? James Blunt knows how you feel.

The British Army officer turned international singing star's premiere album, "Back to Bedlam,'' is the most depressing thing since, well, this week's "American Idol" results, filled with blubbering ballads sung in a high-pitched cackle that is more typically heard when someone slams his fingers in a car door.

At the Warfield on Wednesday, however, where Blunt played the first of two sold-out shows, nobody seemed particularly interested in the Oprah-approved singer's fragile emotional state. They wanted to see the guy who had been steaming up their television windows by appearing topless in the video for "You're Beautiful," the song that made him the first British artist to top the U.S. singles chart since Elton John in 1997.

For most sensitive singer-songwriters, entertaining a roomful of chattering, beer-soaked housewives is a teeth-gnashing affair. For Blunt, it had the opposite effect. He turned into a raging extrovert. The tousle-haired singer bounced around, cracked random jokes, locked eyes with the wedge-heeled beauties at the foot of the stage, climbed on the speakers for a spastic guitar solo and performed more than one song in front of a giant dancing monkey.

Under the watchful eye of Linda Perry -- the songwriter behind Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" and Pink's "Get the Party Started," who signed Blunt to her Atlantic Records imprint after seeing him at the South by Southwest music festival three years ago -- he played the ballad-heavy "Back to Bedlam" in its entirety, demonstrating that in an emergency, the album could conveniently double as a general anesthetic.

The best parts of his 75-minute set were nervy covers of the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind" and Slade's "Coz I Luv You," songs that suggested he would be better off if he stepped away from the piano and dove into the mosh pit.
Blunt made a persuasive attempt at wrenching a few tears with "No Bravery," a stark ballad that looks back on his military stint in Kosovo with harsh lyrics ("Tracer lighting up the sky/ It's another family's turn to die") and crude homemade video footage of burnt-out buildings and roadside graves. But the song's dark tone seemed a little much for a quiet Wednesday night. The crickets chirping in the audience seemed to agree.

He dangled "You're Beautiful" till the very end, unfurling the lilting pop hit as the last song of the encore, inducing mass euphoria. The sing-along that followed spilled out onto Market Street and into nearby parking garages long after Blunt and his band had walked offstage. And the shirt stayed on.

E-mail Aidin Vaziri at avaziri@sfchronicle.com.