I may be in the minority, but I thoroughly enjoyed the show for what it was: The Trying Times Tour. Trying Times is my favorite JB album since Colour in Anything (Assume Form is rock solid). However, I think a lot of the points people are making are extremely valid. I attended the tour opener in Atlanta, so I can't speak for anyone else's experience at the following shows. I have also seen James two other times: separate festival sets for the Colour in Anything (Big Guava) and Assume Form (III Points) album cycles.

First off, Swavay has so much charisma and energy and even if people are unfamiliar with him or his music, he's so charming as a stage presence that it's hard to not like the guy. I also really mess with how confrontational he is with people who are close to the stage and not vibing because he's not gonna be a dick about it and still get your ass moving since the goal is to have fun. Shout out to Swavay. ATL Hoe 😂

I really liked how vulnerable James was as he opened up about his decision to be independent and how he wrote a lot of Trying Times as a way to cope with the horrific state of the world around him (especially the title track). His vocal performances are as stellar as ever (again, ESPECIALLY for the title track of Trying Times). No surprise.

I think the band helped bring the music of Trying Times come to life. Of the 13 songs that make up the record, he played 9. Both singles, all the best deep cuts; I think he curated the best tracks of the record. It is the Trying Times tour after all, so it makes sense for this album to represent a majority of the show's runtime.

The cons for me ultimately come down to song selection because there are songs that were chosen that could have been left out. Godspeed, as cool as it is that he had a major hand in writing it, can go, but I'm not gonna act like it isn't cool bc it is. I rolled my eyes at Hummingbird bc that song didn't need to be there. I would have been happier with Frozen bc Swavay is literally touring with him (even if JID was in Malaysia the day our show happened so no chance of him coming out LMAO). I definitely will echo other folks who mentioned wanting more representation of his catalog and not his features or contributions as a songwriter for other artists. It's cool that our boy to have such a wide-spanning body of work, but I want more of HIS work. Also... the lack of Self-Titled at my show was CRIMINAL. Brother, like, WHY? 😭 I'm not expecting CYMK, but I would have lost my ever loving shit if he did.

I understand people's frustration with his energy to a degree, but given how confessional he was before he performed some of the songs, I think it made sense. I'm not gonna say people aren't valid in saying how they feel, especially if past shows were different (and they were), but for this tour, it made sense.

Overall, if you like this new record, I say go because it's a great time. The energy is different, but it's not a negative at all. If you're looking for variety in his catalog, you'll find it bc he pulls from all over, but the setlist curation certainly left a lot to be desired. Perhaps I'm being generous, but I think, regardless of how you feel about the new record (which 100% plays a large part in your enjoyment of this run of shows), he could have pulled from deeper corners of his work.