James Bay returns to the Fox Oakland for an unforgettable performance

September 19, 2023

Saturday night had us front and center at the James Bay show in Oakland at the iconic Fox Theater. It was exciting to catch his headline show amid his tour with The Lumineers. This show was exactly what we needed after spending the day celebrating the life of my sister whom we lost to mucosal melanoma. It was a day filled with insurmountable emotions and our souls needed healing. What better way to recover, than to immerse ourselves into the music of James Bay.

The night started with an emotional stirring set by rising artist Abby Holliday. Her music conveys the raw emotion of life and loss and we were soaking it all in.

James hit the stage and kicked it right off with a rousing and blazing performance of Best Fake Smile. Our tattered and torn hearts were instantly on the mend as James’ vocals filled our hearts with exactly what we needed. The set was perfect and included the mix of old and new.

Setlist Oakland 9.16.23

Best Fake Smile
Just for Tonight
Wanderlust
If You Ever Want to Be in Love
Us
Goodbye Never Felt So Bad
All My Broken Pieces
Let It Go
Wild Love
Love Don’t Hate Me
When We Were On Fire
Pink Lemonade
Craving
Scars
Hold Back the River

Check out some photos of the night by our Rockin Ryan:

The band delivered a tight performance and the sound was extraordinary, capturing every bit of emotion from each note and beat, highlighted with the excellent lighting. The crowd was in absolute awe of the performance and they were singing along to the songs. It was such a magical moment. For us, hearing Scars performed live was a truly cathartic healing for us. We used that song in a video back in 2018 as we tried to recover from the loss of our home during the Santa Rosa firestorms. You can watch that video here.

It was a great reminder for us to see how far we have come from that loss, and we will continue to have losses but also great wins, and through it all we will have James Bay music as the soundtrack through it all.

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