Playing to a sold-out crowd on Friday the 13th sounds like you’re asking for trouble, right? Not for the Temper Trap, who did just that last Friday at the Showbox at the Market, by far one of the best venues in town, and on one of the warmest nights of the summer.
On a day that was already riddled with great (and some free) shows around Seattle, the line for the Temper Trap’s show was lined up around the block by with still twenty minutes to spare until the doors opened at 8.
It had been two and a half months since I’d been to the Showbox, and also two and a half months since I’d seen the Temper Trap at the Sasquatch Festival. So it was nice to get back to my old stomping grounds with what I expected to be a great show.
I was right.
Synth-laden electro pop San Francisco natives Butterfly Bones opened the show. Their sound was fun and comparable to Seattle natives Starfucker. Though the crowd was really feeling it, their upbeat grooves should have gotten more people dancing. I had a feeling that because it was a sold out show, no one really cared about an opening act. It also probably didn’t help that each of Butterfly Bones’ songs seemed to never end. I’m pretty sure one lasted about 7 minutes. I’m not kidding. But I like Butterfly Bones music – the funky jams like “Crystal Caves” and “<3” – both of which are on their MySpace. I mentioned the show to a friend of mine who lives in San Francisco, and she said that Butterfly Bones are normally really awesome live. Local favorites, local crowds: I know how it is.
By the time the intermission came, people were already ridiculously anxious. And at that point, the PA system started playing some random catchy dance pop. However, when the opening chords of Phoenix’s “1901” came on, people started dancing. It was quite awesome, actually, because people also were singing along – to the loudspeaker. I know, a bit surreal, right? I love Phoenix as much as the next person, so I joined in the intermission loudspeaker dance party.
Just after 10 p.m., a drawn-out synth introduction built the anticipation in the crowded room, a few people behind me already slightly inebriated.
Stepping out on stage one by one, the Temper Trap finished out the intro, 
a strong and powerful way to start the show, before jumping right into “Rest,” with lead singer Dougy Mandagi’s crescendoing “oooo, baby” throughout the chorus and verses. My sister and I were standing on the right side of the stage in front of bassist Jonathon Aherne, who has the most energy I’ve ever seen from a bass player, and it helped make our experience that much more exciting.
After “Rest,” we got the more upbeat and danceable “Fader,” which is my second favorite track off their phenomenally successful 2009 debut Conditions, and it’s by far the easiest to sing along to. How hard is it to sing, “Don’t go change a thing, ooo, ooo, oooo, oo?”
That was actually one thing I’ve been missing lately – people crowd knowing all the songs. The last three shows I saw were all the same band with an extended back catalogue, and because the Temper Trap only has one full-length out, there are only those songs to memorize. So naturally, I wasn’t the only person singing a long to all the words.
Except at one point three girls planted their feet behind me and the polite crowd of people I was standing with and decided to make fools of themselves. It was nearing the middle of the show, and one of the girls was literally crying. I’m sure it was a mixture of the heat, crowd, awesomeness of the show, and the alcohol in her system.
It provided a good laugh for the people I was standing with.
The crowd wasn’t nearly as excited as I’d hoped, with it being sold out and all, but once guitarist Lorenzo Sillitto started playing the familiar chords to “Sweet Disposition”…well, people still didn’t get into it. But then again, Sillitto’s guitar intro is quite long, and I remembered it from back in May, so I probably looked like a crazy fool getting all excited for unspecified chords while everyone else was like, “when are they gonna play “Sweet Disposition?!” In about a minute, my friends – just you wait.
So that’s when everyone went absolutely nuts and started swaying to the beat and singing at the top of their lungs. I just wished that’s how the crowd had reacted to each song, not just the single that was on the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack and got dangerously close to being overplayed.
Even though that moment when everyone recognized “Sweet Disposition” was expected, it was still awesome. However, my favorite moments of the night came during the building and pulsating two part “Resurrection” and “Drum Song” where Mandagi took his water bottle and poured it directly on the floor tom he was beating on in almost a tribal way, which then sprayed across the stage in a cascade of water droplets. And “Resurrection” is my favorite song off the record, so that made it even better.
After a short encore and a loud round of applause, the Temper Trap came back on stage for a few more songs, after Mandagi introduced a new one, where he sat at a slightly undersized keyboard that was quite low to the ground. It was a softer song, which was a nice start to the encore, because the show ended on the second single off Conditions, “Science of Fear,” which also got the crowd in a tizzy, so it was the perfect way to end a great show from a great band.
The crowd may have been less-than-thrilling, but I was so into the music being played I didn’t care about the lame people standing to my right or the drunk people standing behind me.
One more thing – because I’m slow, I didn’t get a set list at the end of the show, but I can pinpoint which songs the Temper Trap did play.
Set list (don’t hold me to the correct order)
- Intro
- Rest
- Fader
- Fools
- Rabbit Hole
- Down River
- Love Lost
- Soldier On
- Sweet Disposition
- Resurrection
- Drum Song
- Unnamed new song
- Science of Fear
(I know the last two were in the encore, I just can’t for the life of me remember what the third one was. Sorry.)
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