Story and photo by Drew Waller.

It’s fitting that Blake mentions his admiration for throwback tracks from gospel greats like Rev. James Cleveland, as you could tell his “disciples” were representing in the hundreds and in rapture at the prospect of having him stop in Detroit to perform from tracks off his latest album at the Majestic.

With minimal set-up of Rob McAndrews on guitar, Ben Assiter on the drums and James Blake off-center behind his piano, the cuts rolled off them to the audience with subtle light effects, dry smoke and nuances of what can be heard on the album, drawing the crowd into the songs. But this wasn’t your big arena show — the pyrotechnics was the music.

The set list threw in some solid unknowns from prior EP releases to make sure people were getting a little of everything from his arsenal. Favorite performance moments included the finale of “Retrograde,” complete with a sample of the audience shrieking that was thrown back at them when the track drove along, Blake and his piano stripped down to deliver Joni Mitchell’s classic “A Case of You,” a throbbing audience rave-out to his most upbeat cut from the new album, “Voyeur” and some glitchy, electro alongside slowed down hip-hop samples with CMYK. All in all, it was one of the most essential Detroit-area shows to be at in May and a night to remember.

Check out the Vine video he made on the day of the show here.