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If you are a big enough fan of British band Keane, then you probably trucked yourself aaalllll the way out to the Sound Academy on Saturday night and saw them practically burst the walls of the place with the crazy energy they were generating. Let me say, sincerely, that I would have liked to see them too. Instead, I was stuck behind the tallest people in the room all night. Grrr. Argh.

It was probably a huge mistake to show up at the venue just before nine o’clock. What is the harm, I thought, when I missed one bus down to Cherry Beach. I will just get there a little later, I thought. Everything will be fine, I thought. Wrong.

When I finally ended up at the Sound Academy (right next door to the random Asian Supermarket) and made my way into the venue, it was only to stop short behind the massive wall of people, affectionately known as the crowd. WHAT, I thought. The show wasn’t even sold out. Try as I might, I couldn’t make any progress towards the stage, and so I spent the show behind three rows of what had to be the tallest people in the room, unable to see anything but glimpses of the musicians and the strobe lights. So here’s what I heard.

Keane’s audience was given one heck of a warming up by The Helio Sequence (who I unfortunately missed) and Mat Kearney, who had his singer/songwriter schtick down pretty tightly. His music and vocal talents reminded me of a combination of Jack Johnson and Coldplay, which sounds weird and improbable, but somehow works out in a good way. Kearney had the crowd on his side the whole way through his 40-ish minute set as he played tracks from his new album City of Black & White, and some older stuff you might have heard before.

Around ten o’clock, Keane took the stage to a hugely receptive (and incredibly packed) crowd. The audience was all about the wooo-woooo’s, which I didn’t expect since when I think of this band I hear Tim Rice-Oxley’s wicked piano riffs and Tom Chaplin’s dulcet vocals. But it got to the point where all the boy-faced singer had to do was approach the edge of the stage and the audience would unleash roars and shrieks like he’d just announced he was going streaking after a pot of leprechaun gold he was going to share with everyone.

The band seemed to have two modes that night: Tim-on-piano, where they played tracks off Hopes and Fears, and Tim-on-synths, which was mostly tracks from Under the Iron Sea and their most recent release Perfect Symmetry. Crowd favourites included “Spiraling”, where the audience took it upon themselves to provide the “woo”’s, and a fantastic rendition of “Playing Along” that Tom did by himself with a spotlight and an acoustic guitar (so awesome). When the band came back for a three-song encore, the audience was already chanting for “Bedshaped”, so when Keane played the opening chords, the audience erupted like a volcano full of jelly beans.

Let me tell you, even though I can’t speak a word about how Tim, Tom, Richard and Jesse (their new bassist fyi) act on stage, they sound SO GREAT live, and definitely know how to work a crowd. If you’re still curious, they’ll be back in the country for a genuine Canadian Tour in September.

Here’s the great set you missed hearing while you were NOT rocking out in the middle of nowhere.

The Lovers are Losing
Everybody’s Changing
Bend and Break
We Might as Well Be Strangers
Again and Again
This is the Last Time
Spiraling
Playing Along
Try Again
Sunshine
You Haven’t Told Me Anything
Leaving So Soon
You Don’t See Me
Perfect Symmetry
Somewhere Only We Know
Crystal Ball

Encore:
Better Than This
Is It Any Wonder?
Bedshaped

Tags: keane, mat kearney, the helio sequence

Posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 2:16 pm by Jessica M and is filed under Blog, Concerts & Events.

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