BAY WATCH

Last night, Republic’s James Bay literally “Held Back the River,” as he lulled the abnormal L.A. thunderstorms into submission with his sweet, sweet sounds.

A young virtuoso on the guitar, he dazzled on songs “When We Were on Fire,” which is currently burned into my brain, “Let It Go,” lead single “Hold Back the River” and the buoyant “Best Fake Smile.”

A true treat of the evening presented itself, however, during the second song of the encore when Bay absolutely NAILED a cover of Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You.” By this point in the evening, I had officially begun to swoon, which I didn't know was possible for such a cold-hearted vampire of a journalist. Please expect a save-the-date for our wedding to come shortly.

Seen trying to lift their jaws from the floor were Republic's Tom Mackay, Rob Stevenson, Gary Spangler, Ron Cerrito, Wendy Goldstein, Amanda Walk Dobbins, Artie Gentile, Talia Gilboa, Stefanie Cole & Delmar Powell, along with KYSR's Mike Kaplan, iHeart SD's John Peake, KIIS' Beata Murphy & Brittany Shabashov, KBIG's Brandon Bell, Westwood One's Jason Bowers, KFMB's Mike O'Reilly, KXTE's Chris Jackson, KFMA's Pete McNair & Seacrest Digital's Tanya Radisavljevic.

The 24-year-old BRITs Critics Choice Award winner (and absolute sweetheart)’s debut full-length hit the scene just two months ago. “River” is already #6 at Triple A radio and climbing at Alternative (#22) and Hot AC (#21). It’s also in the Top 20 alternative songs at iTunes. Hailed as an “Artist to Watch” by the likes of BuzzFeed, Spotify, Vevo DSCVR and Shazam, he’s already accumulated 48m+ Vevo views and 85m+ Spotify streams.

Expect big things from this one.

(L-R: Samantha Hissong, Gary Spangler, Tom Mackay, Amanda Walk Dobbins, Ron Cerrito, James Bay, Rob Stevenson, Artie Gentile, Talia Gilboa)