marQ's ish: Keane-etic

I attended my first ever show at the Radio City Music Hall last May 27 and I was so excited. Needless to say, I've never watched Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes in my five years here in NYC. The occasion was a concert by British rockers, Keane, in the last leg of their North American tour in support of the third album, Perfect Symmetry. This also marks my third rock band concert I've attended, following Maroon 5 in 2007 and Matchbox Twenty in 2008. See, I'm not just all about pop divas.

I was gonna give up on finding tickets for the show when it first came out because there seemed to be nothing good. And then a week before the show, I tried again and voila, there's an amazing seat halfway through the center. I didn't waste no time purchasing it and looked forward to the show. I made sure I reviewed the band's discography three days prior to regain familiarity with the repertoire.

The concert kicked off with The Helio Sequence and then later on, Mat Kearney (Nothing Left To Lose). Two hours later, Keane finally took the stage and just like that, the milieu of the concert hall was transformed. It's not like the audience was bored with the first two acts, but there's something to be said about the anticipation of finally witnessing the main reason why they're here in the first place. The band played songs from all three albums, including Early Winter, a Gwen Stefani song written by Keane pianist, Tim Rice-Oxley. Tom Chaplin, the band's vocalist, was a fireball of energy. His vocals incredibly matched that of the CD; it was phenomenal. My favorite moments were when they played the hits, Everybody's Changing, Somewhere Only We Know, Bedshaped, Spiralling, among others. I was just slightly disappointed that they didn't play Nothing In My Way, A Bad Dream (my favorites from the second album, Under The Iron Sea) and Better Than This (my favorite track on Perfect Symmetry). Also, I was a disappointed with myself that I didn't know the full lyrics to their songs. Back in high school and college, I was the go-to lyrics guy. I was always compelled to learn and memorize lyrics of songs from my favorite artists. I would spend hours reading the cd covers until I know the words by heart. That guy has long gone, I suppose.

Overall, it was an amazing show. The guys did an astounding performance and they really lived up to my expectations as live performers. They did an encore of that David Bowie/Queen song "Under Pressure," which didn't really surprise most of Keane fans since they have been known to play this cover in most of their shows. Fortunately, I was able to record a vid of that performance. Sadly, it was the only video that I recorded. I was holding out for them to play my favorite songs mentioned above but it never happened. Anyway, I'm sure there will be a next time.