popwreckoning

The Get Up Kids have released their third video from new album There Are Rules for song “Regent’s Court.” The video was compiled by director Pat Vamos and can be seen below.

The Get Up Kids have kicked off their summer tour, co-headlining June shows and headlining July shows throughout the Midwest and Northeast. Dates in Australia, New Zealand and Japan in early August will be followed by two Los Angeles-area dates in mid-August, before the band departs for a European tour in the fall.

www.thegetupkids.com

Jim Bianco released his video for “Sinners,” off his most recent album Loudmouth, and it’s a result of the SIN FOR JIM contest. This contest asked contestants to submit footage and the winning clips were edited into the video. Bianco says of the video: “I wrote a song about mucking things up, pissing people off and drinking with your friends. Thankfully, my fans are experts at these activities.” See the video below:

He’ll be in Europe with Brian Wright and Australia with Joshua Radin throughout the summer with US tour dates to come in July and August.

www.jimbianco.com

I had the opportunity to ask Chris Freeman of Manchester Orchestra a few questions. The band is currently in the midst of a national tour with co-headliner Cage The Elephant.

Devon Mueller, Popwreckoning: How does it feel to be releasing your third album Simple Math?

Chris Freeman, Manchester Orchestra: It feels great. We’re really very proud of this record and we’re just happy that it’s finally out. After sitting on this thing for as long as we did, one begins to gain a growing desire for feedback. You start to get into your own head about the whole thing in hopes that people will like it.

DM: Did you ever imagine the band being where it is today?

CF: Everybody hopes to be the biggest band in the world, or at least I think they do. On the slow climb that we’ve been on for the past few years, there are always moments of disbelief when we realize that we’ve been blessed enough to be able to do what we do and be successful at it.

DM: How does the writing and recording process work for you guys as a whole? Lyrics, instrumentation, live recordings, etc.?

CF: It varies a lot, but the constant is Andy writing the basic ideas for everything that we come out with; Sometimes he brings in a riff, or a fully fledged out song and we just sort of write parts around whatever he brings to the table.

DM: One could consider you a multi-instrumentalist. Is there a certain instrument you’re particularly fond of?

CF: I really enjoy playing the vibraphone. Sounds stupid but it’s a really versatile instrument; it can sound very beautiful or very haunting. We didn’t get to use one on Mean Everything To Nothing but I jumped at the chance to use one for this record.

DM: During Manchester Orchestra’s live Facebook chat/premiere of “Virgin,”  Andy said the songs on Mean Everything To Nothing were meant to scare people. What is the main focus and goal of Simple Math?

CF: We just wanted to make the best record that we could. It’s definitely an experience as a whole album and each song speaks for itself in their own unique ways. Its a growth album and that growth is evident in the sequencing and we just wanted to bring people along with us in that growth for us as a band.

DM: Any weird pre-show rituals?

CF: We started doing this high-five thing, like in the NBA where they slap hands really low and then immediately pull back. We do that now.

DM: If you could interview any band, dead or alive, who would it be and what’s the one burning question you’d ask?

CF: I’d ask David Byrne if he’d show me how he found those grooves on Remain In Light and Speaking In Tongues. I just want to know what they started with in the building process of the songs on those records.

DM: Funniest tour moment?

CF: I saw Tim slip today outside of the bus and then I yelled “NERD!!!” That was really funny.

DM: Where do you see yourself in five years?

CF: Hopefully still making records with my friends, playing shows, and living in Australia.

DM: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

CF: Probably crying in a closet in Ohio somewhere.

Manchester Orchestra’s website: www.themanchesterorchestra.com

These days when I think of great Irish bands, there are three that come to mind immediately: Two Door Cinema Club, the Script and the Coronas. If you’ve been keeping up with what I’ve written here at PopWreckoning, you know I am not shy in proclaiming my love of both Two Door and the Script, and I feel validated now that both bands have enjoyed well-deserved success here in America. The Coronas don’t have a record deal in the U.S. as of yet, but I became completely convinced Tuesday night watching them live that they will soon be offered a deal worth their talent. (If there are any label bosses reading this article, definitely check them out. And sign them. You won’t be disappointed.) The Dublin rock/pop quartet Washington to deliver a solid set to an appreciative crowd at Red Palace.

The opening band for the night was New York City-based band the Kin. I looked them up prior to the gig, bemused with their “alternative / pop / shoegaze” genre label on their MySpace. Not exactly what I envisioned as support for the Coronas. Turns out the band is actually brothers Isaac and Thorald Koren, originally from Adelaide, Australia, but who have found themselves in the Big Apple working on their dream. Both brothers sing (and sing harmonies very well, I might add), with Isaac playing keys and synth and Thorald playing guitar. While travelling around New York by subway, they found a busker named, inexplicably, SHAKEALEG and decided he was the live percussionist they were looking for. He doesn’t play drums the way everyone else does; he has a very unusual setup with a conga drum and high hats and does not use sticks, only his hands, fingers wrapped up with athletic bandages. The live result is highly dynamic, and the band manages to effortlessly switch between pop, rock, and soul genres. “Wind Over Southern France” had a soulful bent, the instrumental intro of their closing number sounded like a homage to the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows”, etc. etc. etc., you get the idea.

As usual for most live gigs, I bet everyone was here for the headliner; I don’t think too many people had even heard of the Kin. But by the end, everyone was behind them, singing along to songs that they had just learned. After the fifth song, all three of them left the stage without an explanation. Where did they go? They jumped into the crowd and did two songs entirely acoustically. Well, I use the word “acoustically” very loosely because SHAKEALEG brought his beats via…tapping on a clipboard. That’s right, a clipboard. Check them out.

This is the Coronas first headlining club tour of America, but lead singer / acoustic guitarist / keyboardist Danny O’Reilly reveals to us before the band plays the unusually titled “Tony Was an Ex-Con” that they were over here doing a very small scale tour of North America before. During that tour, they retained the services of a driver who they would later find out was actually a former convict, and his name was Tony. Too funny. There’s something disarming about O’Reilly and really, all of the band, as the whole gig feels very comfortable, as if we were sitting in someone’s living room and the band were playing for friends. It also happened to be the birthday of their guitarist Dave McPhillips, which made things feel even more festive. Their years of playing for growing crowds of fans in Ireland has obviously paid off, as they look very relaxed performing for a new audience while they trot out hits from the two best-selling albums released back home. There is also definite onstage chemistry between all of the band members, smiles all around.

The DC crowd got the special first listen of a new song, “Dreaming Again,” and as pointed out by my gigging companion, it has a Two Door Cinema Club quality, owing to Graham Knox’s relentless bass line. But the highlight of the night for me was the one song that has remained my favorite Coronas song to this day, “Someone Else’s Hands.” O’Reilly left his guitar behind to position himself behind the keys and begin singing what quite possibly is one of the most beautiful songs written about heartbreak to date. But I don’t want you thinking that all they do are lovey-dovey swoony tunes, though mind you, they do that type of song very well.

If the Script are said to the current best Irish soul pop band and Two Door Cinema Club are the current best Irish indie dance pop band, then the Coronas are the current best Irish rock pop band out there. I’m a stickler for lyrics, and the Coronas have excellent lyrics to go with great guitars and the occasional piano chords. They have introspective numbers – see “All the Luck in the World” and the inspirational “Heroes and Ghosts” – but can accept and laugh at themselves, as evidenced by the song that broke them, “San Diego Song,” explained by O’Reilly as embracing the stereotype that the Irish are drunks. He said this not flippantly but with an honesty that the crowd ate up. I couldn’t believe it but it felt like everyone in the venue knew the words and was singing along. And the Coronas can rock out with the best of them with songs like “Listen Dear” and “Far From Here,” the latter with O’Reilly’s voice taking on a jaunty, dancehall quality, the others joining in on harmonies and Conor Egan’s pounding drumming driving the song along. I can’t imagine ever going away from a Coronas’ gig without a huge grin on your face.

The Coronas Set List
Far From Here
Won’t Leave You Alone
Listen Dear
Heroes or Ghosts
What You Think You Know
Dreaming Again (new song)
San Diego Song
Someone Else’s Hands
New song tentatively titled “The Rainbow Song”
Tony Was an Ex-Con
All the Luck in the World
//
Warm
The Talk

Tour Dates
Mar 10 – Brighton Music Hall / Allston, MA
Mar 11 – The Craic @ Mercury Lounge / New York City
Mar 12 – North Star Bar / Philadelphia
Mar 15 – Beachland Ballroom and Tavern / Cleveland
Mar 17 – Lincoln Hall / Chicago

The Coronas: website | myspace
The Kin: website | myspace

One of the most exciting bands of the moment, Pendulum, are touring in North America right now. The Australian/British drum and bass and electronic band are playing a series of shows as support for Linkin Park, as well as headlining some of their largest shows of their own on our continent to date. I had an opportunity to ask Gareth McGrillen, bassist and co-founder of the group, some questions during a rare moment of free time while they’re on the road. He tells me how the band’s move from Australia to Britain was pivotal to their success, about their crazy fans that “destroy each other,” and how Immersion, their latest album just released this week in the U.S., differs from their two previous albums. Read on.

MC: Tell me about the beginnings of Pendulum. What was it like growing up in Perth, what is the music scene like there? How do you think it contributed to the way your band sounds and your songs?
GM: Because we started out in such an underground scene as drum and bass, but came into the scene at such a late stage, and because we had come from Perth, I think we didn’t have such strong ties to the culture of the genre. This enabled us to break the rules so to speak, and I think that’s how the sound developed so quickly. We didn’t feel out of place putting guitars and other influences we grew up with into the music, where as if we had grown up in the UK, it would have been something we’d have steered clear of.

MC:Who came up with the name, and how does it relate to what your band does musically?
GM: [Band co-founder] Rob [Swire] and I put a list together and just shortened the list until we agreed.

MC: In 2003 you moved your band from Australia to the UK. Why the UK and not America or elsewhere? Did you have any reservations/worries on making such a long distance move?
GM: At the time we were in an underground dance music scene, we had just written our first song and it blew up in a huge way in the UK (the home of electronic music), so it was an inevitable move for us, Australia was too far away from everywhere else. It’s always hard to pick up and move to such a harsh place as London when you’re young, and it was a massive struggle for a few years, but the harshness tends to push you to succeed.

MC: Did any of these worries actually come to light? Conversely, what things happened that you think would not have if you had stayed in Australia?
GM: We’d have not gotten anywhere if we had stayed in Australia, the move for us was essential. Australia is far to relaxed it makes me lazy, we needed to be pushed by a place like the UK where the music scene waits for nobody.

MC: How did you find the other members of Pendulum in the UK? Was it by newspaper advert, word of mouth, recommendation by a friend, etc.? Your music is so dynamic, I have it in my mind that you really have to have a group of people who are really in sync in order to make music that works.
GM: I had been working with Ben Verse [Benjamin Mount] as my MC in DJ shows for quite some time, so introducing him into the live show was a natural step. Perry [Peredur ap Gwynedd] had played on some of our early tracks and played guitar on other drum and bass tracks in the past. Kevin [Sawka], we found on YouTube, haha!

MC: To someone who has never heard your music before, how would you describe your sound?
GM: If you like rock and metal you’ll hear that in the music, if you like electronic music and heavy bass you’ll hear that. I think that’s why we attract so many listens from across genres – the music hits many styles all at once.

MC: I like both hard rock and dance, and I find my favourite songs of yours combines the best of those two worlds. Some of your oldest fans have stated that you have abandoned the drum and bass genre for a more commercial, alternative rock / electronic sound? How would you respond to that?
GM: The very second track we wrote had guitars and full vocals from Rob in it, back in 2003. Our first album had the guitarist and basses from the metal band Karnivool playing on it, as well as Perry playing on “Girl In The Fire,” we didn’t abandon anything, we just got more and more bored of doing the exact same thing and felt we had earnt enough of a creative license to start introducing our greater influences into the music. The fact it got big and the fact it all blew up was a secondary event. We had already done it and it turned out a lot more people wanted to hear it than we had anticipated. Selling out for us would have been continuing to write the tracks that people around us wanted us to write over and over again.

MC: I had the chance to see you play at Arena at Roskilde Festival last summer (2010). Before you got onstage and the front pits opened, fans were actually pushing and shoving each other to get the best, closest spots to the front of the stage. I got injured the night before at Biffy Clyro in the pit at the same stage, so I opted to watch you guys from a distance (probably a wise decision, as I’m small!). Is this usual for Pendulum concerts?
GM: Yes, our audiences destroy each other, it’s incredible to watch!

MC: Who does your lighting? I thought the visuals plus music were really amazing, a consummate experience.
GM: Lighting is a very important aspect to the show for us, we put in so much time and effort into the sound, so it’s also important to do the same with the visual aspect of the show.

MC: You guys have such an energetic live set. I had no idea the Scandinavians were as mental over you as the Brits. Were you surprised?
GM: All across Europe and the UK, as well as Australia, we’re getting that same reaction. I think it’s just some kind of gene we excite in people that makes them want to destroy each other.

MC: That said, it seems like the UK music scene has been more welcoming of your music than other countries – agree or disagree, and why?
GM: The UK was initially the home of what we were doing (drum and bass) so we’ve spent the longest time there, I think that’s mostly why we’re biggest in the UK. The UK in a lot of ways is the center of the universe for *new* music because of radio stations like Radio1, so a lot of new bands are broken in the UK first.

MC: Do you have a favourite show / festival moment from last year? What do you remember about it / what makes it so memorable to you in your mind?
GM: Reading Festival and Sonisphere were amazing, They all were.

MC: Your last album Immersion was released in the UK last year but is just getting released in America this month. You have some real big heavy hitters in the business on this one – Liam Howlett of the Prodigy for the track “Immunize,” for one. How did this collaboration happen?
GM: We put together a list of artists we’d like to work with and our management set about contacting them. With Liam however, we cross paths with the Prodigy guys a lot, so we were hanging out in Australia and decided to do a track to show the world we don’t hate each other.

MC: How do you feel Immersion fits in the Pendulum story so far? What are your plans for future material, are you working on new stuff now?
GM: Immersion was the best parts of Hold Your Colour and In Silico taken to the next level, we drew on our previous albums for inspiration on the third.

MC: What’s a surprising fact about you or your band that most people don’t know?
GM: We’re Australian? Many still don’t realize this.

MC: You are about to go on an extensive tour of North America, opening for Linkin Park for some dates and headlining your own shows on others. Where are you most looking forward to visiting / playing and why?
GM: America is a tough place to crack, so we’re looking forward to the challenge.

Tour Dates
Jan 28 – Xcel Energy Center / St. Paul*
Jan 29 – Sprint Center / Kansas City*
Jan 31 – Wells Fargo Center / Philadelphia*
Feb 01 – TD Garden / Boston*
Feb 02 – Guvernment / Toronto#
Feb 04 – Madison Square Garden / New York City*
Feb 05 – Irving Plaza / New York City#
Feb 07 – Bell Centre / Montreal*
Feb 08 – Air Canada Centre / Toronto*
Feb 10 – Verizon Center / Washington, DC*
Feb 11 – Mohegan Sun Arena / Uncasville, CT*
Feb 16 – Ogden Theatre / Denver#
Feb 17 – In the Venue / Salt Lake City#
Feb 19 – Showbox SoDo / Seattle#
Feb 20 – Commodore Ballroom / Vancouver#
Feb 23 – Fillmore / San Francisco#
Feb 25 – Wiltern / Los Angeles#
Feb 26 – House of Blues / Las Vegas#
Mar 25-27 – Ultra Music Festival / Miami
#with Innerpartysystem
*supporting Linkin Park

Pendulum: website | myspace | Immersion review

Melbourne, Australia’s Cut Copy will be touring North America this spring in support of their forthcoming album, Zonoscope, due out February 8 in America. The Aussie synthpop band will be supported on all (non-festival) dates by New York’s Holy Ghost!

These North American dates follow a European tour. The band will also be making appearances, naturally, at Australia’s Laneways Festival in February, as well as Miami’s big electronic music festival, Ultra, on March 26.

Tour Dates
Mar 26 – Ultra Music Festival / Miami
Mar 28 – Masquerade (Heaven Stage) / Atlanta
Mar 29 – 9:30 Club / Washington DC
Mar 31 – Trocadero / Philadelphia
Apr 02 – Terminal 5 / New York City
Apr 04 – House of Blues / Boston
Apr 05 – Club Soda / Montreal
Apr 07 – Sound Academy / Toronto
Apr 08 – Riviera / Chicago
Apr 09 – First Avenue / Minneapolis
Apr 12 – Showbox SoDo / Seattle
Apr 15 – Coachella / Indio, CA
Apr 16 – Grand Ballroom @ Regency / San Francisco
Apr 20 – Granada Theater / Dallas
Apr 22 – Stubbs / Austin
Apr 23 – Republic / New Orleans

Cut Copy: website | myspace | @ 9:30 Club, 2009

Until last summer, I didn’t know much about drum and bass band Pendulum, except that young people in the UK (the main audience of BBC Radio1) adored them so much that anything as much as a hint to new Pendulum material would cause mass shockwaves through Twitter. No one I knew on this side of the Atlantic knew who they were, and I expected a similar lack of knowledge in Scandinavia. But wow, what a reception the band got at Roskilde Festival last summer. I witnessed a manic crowd reaction, but in a way, I expected it: the genius of Pendulum – and also of Immersion, their most mainstream release to date – is the combination of heavy guitars and drums and quick-tempo emanating electronics that interest guys with dance beats and lead singer Rob Swire‘s sexy vocals that have proved quite popular with girls.

Here are the basics: Pendulum started out in Perth, Australia as a drum and bass band in the early Noughties. The group – then just Swire, bassist Gareth McGrillen, and DJ Paul Harding – soon relocated to the UK, the ancestral home of rave music (they’re now based in London). This turned out to be a fateful move, as after gaining several bandmates, the band released their 2005 debut album, Hold Your Colour, which contained their first UK singles top 40 hit, the double A-sided “Slam” / “Out Here.” Their second album, In Silico, was their first release in America. Coming up later this month, their third album, Immersion, will be released stateside, more than 6 months after the UK release of the album and its reaching #1 on the UK Top 40 albums chart the week of its release. Immersion reflects a more electronic-heavy, dance-driven sound than its two predecessors.

“Genesis” is the opening track of the album, and it begins not unlike something you’d hear on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. It sets the stage for the grandeur your ears are going to experience next, mixing right into instrumental “Salt in the Wounds.” Halfway through, the songs break down, making you think it’s going to mellow out for the rest of the 6 minutes, but in the 4th minute, it’s clear Pendulum is not done making your heart race, going back to frenetic, thudding beats. This song, along with singles “Watercolour,” “Witchcraft,” and “Crush,” are ones that make you jump up and down in a packed club of sweating bodies. Or at an open air music festival, as I witnessed at Roskilde.

But the best part of this album are “The Island – Pt. I (Dawn)” and “The Island – Pt. II (Dusk)”, two halves of a sonic masterpiece. Part one is a Rocky-esque pump-up kind of song, with programming and beats not too soft and not too heavy – just perfect. Swire’s expansive vocals, as if calling out across his homeland of Australia, are alternately sweet and sweltering. “Close your eyes / let’s forget again / as you drag me down / I will take you in / what are you waiting for? / just surrender here tonight / what are you waiting for? / as we go towards the light…” – gulp. I could listen to this track all day. Rob Swire, call me. Then part two takes over, as the electronic wizardry take center stage, the track concluding with more conventional tropical beats.

The album also has some interesting and high-profile guests. Liam Howlett of seminal big beat English electronic group the Prodigy lent his cowriting and production talents to “Immunize”; while it’s no “Breathe ” or “Invaders Must Die,” it’s still pretty good. Prog/psych band Porcupine Tree founder Steve Wilson cowrote and sings on “The Fountain,” which sounds neither proggy or psychedelic and is instead the most unique track on the album, driven by piano along with the electronic beats and drums.

Metalheads will enjoy the more instrument-driven “Comprachicos” as well as “Self vs. Self,” a more straight-forward collaboration (vocals and traditional band instruments) between Pendulum and Swedish death metal band In Flames. Understandably, the latter features more aggressive (and in my opinion, quite scary) vocals from In Flames‘ Anders Fridén. This, along with “Set Me on Fire,” with vocals sounding vaguely Will.I.Am reggae, are probably the only numbers on Immersion that feel out of place.

Immersion is the kind of album that if you are into electronic music at all, you’ll appreciate the attention to detail this band has put into every single track. A couple weeks ago I was reading a UK electronic music magazine’s interview with Swire, and there was a photo of a small sampling of the complicated electronic equipment used to create the Pendulum sound. It’s astonishing what musicians and producers can do with electronics these days to make truly exciting music. If you get the chance to see Pendulum live this year, do it – you won’t be disappointed, I promise. The band make a special live appearance at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival at the end of March; I imagine surrounded by their peers and loads of fans, that would be the ultimate way to experience them.

Immersion will be released on Atlantic Records on January 25, 2011 in America.

Tracklisting:
01. Genesis
02. Salt in the Wounds
03. Watercolour
04. Set Me on Fire
05. Crush
06. Under the Waves
07. Immunize (feat. Liam Howlett [the Prodigy])
08. The Island – Pt. I (Dawn)
09. The Island – Pt. 2 (Dusk)
10. Comprachicos
11. The Vulture
12. Witchcraft
13. Self vs Self (feat. In Flames)
14. The Fountain (feat. Steve Wilson [Porcupine Tree])
15. Encoder

Tour Dates
Jan 20 – Bank Atlantic Center / Sunrise, FL*
Jan 22 – St. Pete Times Forum / Tampa*
Jan 23 – Philips Arena / Atlanta*
Jan 25 – Joe Louis Arena / Detroit*
Jan 26 – United Center / Chicago*
Jan 28 – Xcel Energy Center / St. Paul*
Jan 29 – Sprint Center / Kansas City*
Jan 31 – Wells Fargo Center / Philadelphia*
Feb 01 – TD Garden / Boston*
Feb 02 – Guvernment / Toronto#
Feb 04 – Madison Square Garden / New York City*
Feb 05 – Irving Plaza / New York City#
Feb 07 – Bell Centre / Montreal*
Feb 08 – Air Canada Centre / Toronto*
Feb 10 – Verizon Center / Washington, DC*
Feb 11 – Mohegan Sun Arena / Uncasville, CT*
Feb 16 – Ogden Theatre / Denver#
Feb 17 – In the Venue / Salt Lake City#
Feb 19 – Showbox SoDo / Seattle#
Feb 20 – Commodore Ballroom / Vancouver#
Feb 23 – Fillmore / San Francisco#
Feb 25 – Wiltern / Los Angeles#
Feb 26 – House of Blues / Las Vegas#
Mar 25-27 – Ultra Music Festival / Miami
#with Innerpartysystem
*supporting Linkin Park

Pendulum: website | myspace

After getting beaten up in a highly unexpected mosh pit at a small club show on the outskirts of Boston the night before and making a hasty retreat from that mess, I was actually looking forward to seeing a show at the House of Blues the next night. I’d heard mixed reviews for the House of Blues and their many outposts scattered across the U.S. – huge places with overzealous security and little atmosphere was the consensus. So after a fun night at the Philly Trocadero 3 days earlier, I wasn’t expecting much from the WFNX-sponsored Temper Trap show Wednesday night.

Security at the House of Blues was professional and courteous. Maybe it was my photo pass but everyone I encountered at the venue was super nice. And I didn’t get patted down like I was in Philly, so I didn’t feel violated. Once inside on the ground level, I gasped as I looked around. The place is massive (twice as big as the Trocadero, with room for 2,400) but it’s beautiful and breathtaking. Helpful security inside advised, “watch your step, ladies,” as there are several steps to negotiate. Well lit, well stocked bars and clearly marked restrooms on this floor – definite pluses. While I was waiting for the show to start I got to talking to two kids from the local Berklee College of Music; it was really cool to talk to “the young people” and hear their appreciation for the Temper Trap’s music. I also advised them to invest in a good set of earplugs, which turned out to be an excellent suggestion given that this was the House of Blues and the size of the speakers hanging from the ceiling should have immediately told you that the gig that night was going to be loud.

It is really cool to see how bands get more at ease after the first night of a tour. The Hundred in the Hands, while being only two people on an expansive stage, sounded better on the House of Blues’s state of the art sound system than they did in Philly. Lead singer Eleanore Everdell was visibly more confident as well, smiling broadly as the audience not familiar with their music politely clapped between songs. Guitarist Jason Friedman looked like he was having a ball on stage, strumming on one of his two guitars.

Highlights were “Lovesick (Once Again)” and “Young Aren’t Young,” showing me yet again the understated beauty of Everdell’s voice. Unfortunately they didn’t play “Gold Blood,” one of my favorite tracks from their self-titled debut album released on Warp Records last month. By the end of the set, the Brooklyn duo had already won some new fans, as evidenced by the people who shouted in displeasure when Everdell announced their sixth and final song. Great to see people responding to them.

Once the Hundred in the Hands‘ equipment was removed from the stage, it was time for Delphic to set up their gear, which is a lot. Standard drum kit and guitars but a couple synths and electronic drum pad setups as well. This is a band that has played to thousands at Glastonbury so I didn’t think the bigger stage (compared to the Trocadero’s) would faze them. And I don’t think it did, really. Singer/bassist James Cook looked more poised and his voice sounded better than ever. Multi-instrumentalist Rick Boardman, guitarist Matt Cocksedge, and touring drummer Dan Hadley were completely on.

The problem was the audience. They never really got into the music and generally just looked bored for both support bands, all waiting (impatiently looking at their mobile phones, I might add) for the Temper Trap. There was no fist pumping or rampant dancing like Sunday night in Philly. (It should be noted that the venue was pretty empty at the start of the night and it wasn’t until shortly before the Temper Trap were due on that the floor filled out.) Too bad, their loss. There was one girl who talked to me after the show who said she was going to buy Acolyte in a music shop as soon as she could, so I was pretty happy about that.

It’s been over a year since I first heard “Counterpoint” on BBC Radio, and I’ve had Acolyte for a long time now, listening to it constantly, so I know all the words on the album. I like to sing in general and this spills over into shows too, so you can imagine this is potentially embarrassing at gigs. But when I did sing, Cook looked my way a couple times and smiled, as if acknowledging this dubious mastery. Haha. Also, I got my wish for “Submission,” my favorite song from Acolyte, and maybe it was the echoes in the huge venue, but the vocal key sounded a bit off. Maybe they are a little rusty after having a couple weeks off between gigs, but I imagine this will wear off after some more gigs stateside. (As of this writing I’ve already read some great comments about their set from the New York and Montreal shows that followed.) I’m looking forward to seeing them in DC in a few days.

Delphic Set List
Clarion Call
Doubt
Red Lights
This Momentary
Submission
Halcyon
Counterpoint

It is a real joy to watch the Temper Trap at this stage of their career. When the well-oiled Temper Trap machine gets fired up, hold on tight, because you’re in for a wild ride. “Fader” was the first Temper Trap song I learned on bass, so it holds special meaning to me, but wow, when it’s offered up to fans live, it’s like a explosion of energy. With its jangly guitar riffs and emotional lyrics, the Melbourne band’s power ballad “Love Lost” is going ensure their place in popular music history. I’m not one to get emotional at gigs, but I have to say that this song brought me to tears. It’s just perfect.

It was fun to witness the thrill of fans who had waited to see their current favorite band. I was surprised to learn that of everyone I talked to, I seemed to be the only one who’d seen them before. One woman came with her boyfriend and requested that he catch her if she fainted when Dougy Mandagi appeared. (She didn’t faint, I’m happy to report. But she was so animated after the gig, she was practically glowing with excitement, chattering away on how great they were.) The students I mentioned before were waiting for their favorite song, “Down River,” and with its fun chorus that got everyone singing along, they weren’t disappointed.

Part of me wishes that the Temper Trap would mix things up, because Wednesday night in Boston was the fourth time I’ve seen and heard that exact same set list this year. I can’t imagine it being too difficult to change song order, because it’s not like they have complicated synth setups like their two openers. But really, how can you complain when they put on such an amazing show, night after night? Cheers guys.

The Temper Trap Set List
introduction
Rest
Fader
Fools
Down River
Love Lost
Soldier On
Sweet Disposition
Resurrection
Drumming Song
//
Rabbit Hole
Science of Fear

Tour Dates (dates with all three bands except those noted)
Oct 07 – Newport Music Hall / Columbus
Oct 08 – DC9 / Washington, DC^
Oct 09 – Austin City Limits / Austin*
Oct 09 – MOTR Club / Cincinnati%
Oct 11 – St. Andrews / Detroit
Oct 12 – Metro / Chicago
Oct 13 – Turner Hall / Milwaukee
Oct 14 – First Avenue / Minneapolis
Oct 18 – Crocodile / Seattle%
Oct 19 – Woods / Portland%
Oct 21 – Popscene / San Francisco&
Oct 22 – Fox / Pomona, CA
Oct 23 – Club Nokia / Los Angeles
^ Delphic only
* the Temper Trap only (festival appearance)
% the Hundred in the Hands only
& Delphic and the Hundred in the Hands only

The Temper Trap: website | myspace | @ 9:30 Club | @ Bonnaroo 2010, Day 1 | The Temper Trap Announce August-October North American Tour with Delphic and The Hundred in the Hands | @ Showbox at the Market | @ Trocadero, Philadelphia
Delphic: website | myspace | American Release Details of Delphic EP | Delphic’s Debut Album Streaming on Their MySpace | @ Trocadero, Philadelphia | Interview with: Matt Cocksedge of Delphic, Part 1, Part 2
The Hundred in the Hands: website | myspace | ‘Pigeons’ takes flight with Foals’ remix | @ Trocadero, Philadelphia

The Temper Trap have been touring so much and in so many places in 2010, I’ve lost count. So I consider the Trocadero gig in Philadelphia the start of their “latest and greatest” North American tour, if you will. The Melbourne-based band played to an enthused crowd there Sunday night. It’s pretty uncommon for me to know about all three bands on a tour – usually I’ll know the headliner and probably one of the headliners peripherally, but on this tour, I was stoked beyond belief that two of the best electronic bands of the moment would be support for the Temper Trap.

Brooklyn’s the Hundred in the Hands have just released their self-titled debut album on Warp Records last week, and it’s an amazing effort. Definitely in my top 5 of albums of 2010, I think it would handily beat out LCD Soundsystem’s This is Happening in a head-to-head contest on the dance floor. You always wonder how electronic bands translate (or don’t) in the live environment, and I can say without a doubt the Hundred in the Hands passes with flying colors. The only issue I had was with some of the instrumentation getting muddled, which I think was more of a fault of the venue’s sound system and not a reflection on the duo. Weirdly, the front row of the standing crowd stock still for the entire night, and it was us and my new friends in the second row that were kicking up our heels to the Brooklyn duo (and the rest of the night for that matter).

Eleanore Everdell (lead vocals / synths) sings, at times, with a yelping howl not unlike Natasha Khan of Bat for Lashes but I think Everdell does this better, because her disaffected voice is perfect for dance music. Check out the amazing “Last City,” the opening track on their album, with its “oh oh oh OH ohs” that will make this an earworm for sure, and even better live. “Pigeons,” a single getting a lot of airplay on British radio, is another gem. A fascinating sidenote: Hundred’s guitarist (and also beat master) Jason Friedman has the same model of Rickenbacker as Delphic’s Matt Cocksedge, so I was doubly blown away by equipment prettiness.

So the next two bands of the night I had been lucky enough to have seen last at Roskilde Festival in very sunny Denmark in July. Delphic released two singles, “Counterpoint” and “This Momentary,” in their home country in 2009. While these didn’t race up the UK singles chart, they generated enough interest such that when the Manchester, England band let loose their debut album, Acolyte, early this year on their own Polydor imprint Chimeric, the buzz was enormous. I was already a big fan of theirs after hearing Acolyte in January, and it quickly became the soundtrack to my cardiovascular workouts for the rest of the DC winter (read: shoveling during the second biggest snowfall ever recorded in Washington). The band have no idea of this particular reason for my great affection for their music. Interestingly, it became clear Sunday night that I, along with the aforementioned second row of fans at the Trocadero, were going to use Delphic to soundtrack quite a workout.

I should probably mention that despite it being autumn on the East Coast already, the inside of the Trocadero was hot. Steamy. Boiling. By the time Delphic started their second song, the synthtastic “Doubt”, the shirt of lead singer/bassist James Cook was already soaking wet with sweat. He seemed unperturbed by this, singing his heart out on tunes like “Red Lights,” complete with requisite red lighting and concluding with a monster synth outro – just what you’d expect from three English boys who are self-described “synthesizer geeks.” Keyboards/synths man Rick Boardman surprised me, singing his backing vocals with so much enthusiasm, I was floored. He sings in a higher register than Cook and frankly, you haven’t heard sexier high-pitched male vocals in a dance song since the Bee Gees days. “Halcyon,” the song that cemented my love for the band (used somewhat freakily for a UK mobile phone advert, I can’t be the only one who thinks James Cook singing “give me something I can believe in” has absolutely nothing to do with mobile phones), was fantastic, with guitarist Matt Cocksedge ripping his now famous guitar solo.

Even though it appeared that myself and one other guy next to me (clutching a Delphic press clipping from NME, no less) were the only people in the whole club to even know who they were and what they sounded like, by the time the set closer “Counterpoint”, with the swells of its guitar and synth and Cook’s upbeat yet sad lyrics of “but you don’t come back around / it seems to me that we will never be” and his emphatic declaration that “nothing’s wrong / nothing’s wrong with today,“ everyone was already on their side, pumping their fists in the air. See, Delphic may write songs about love and heartbreak like other bands, but they write and play them in a way you will force you to take notice, because you won’t be able to keep still. This is music that makes you want to dance.

Delphic Set List
Clarion Call
Doubt
Red Lights
This Momentary
Halcyon
Counterpoint

The way things are going for the Temper Trap, I think they could very well be playing stadiums in the near future. They have the swagger, they have the confidence, and they certainly have devoted fans. In Washington, maybe a quarter of the attendees show up before or around doors and the rest amble in at the appointed set time for the headliner. Not so with Sunday’s Temper Trap show. I have never in my life seen such a long line outside a venue before doors, going for what seemed like miles down Arch Street. Thanks to two wonderful openers, the Trocadero crowd was drenched in perspiration and ready for the headliner.

All too predictably, “Sweet Disposition,” the song on the “500 Days of Summer” soundtrack that made the Temper Trap a household name in America, got the loudest crowd reaction. But my buddies and I in second row standing had a good time pogo-ing to “Fader,” “Love Lost,” and even “Down River,” the latter with its unusually plodding verses but endearing, shoutable chorus of “Down river! Down river!” and odd spoken lyrics from bassist Jonathan Aherne. I think a lot of people went to this show knowing nothing but “Sweet Disposition” and maybe “Fader,” but they all came away with a feeling of euphoria, seeing a band close to or at its peak in performance terms. Dougy Mandagi grinned through the entire set, later reaching out to the crowd at the end to shake as many hands as he could.

The light show for their final song, “Science of Fear,” was a war between strobes and blue spotlights. This is the level of light show Muse uses on tour. So it’s not a far stretch of the imagination to imagine envision the Temper Trap playing Madison Square Garden or the Meadowlands sometime soon. They won’t be playing clubs for much longer. Watch this space.

The Temper Trap Set List
introduction
Rest
Fader
Fools
Down River
Love Lost
Soldier On
Sweet Disposition
Resurrection
Drumming Song
//
Rabbit Hole
Science of Fear

Tour Dates (dates with all three bands except those noted)
Sept 29 – House of Blues / Boston
Sept 30 – Wellmont / Montclair, NJ
Oct 01 – Terminal 5 / New York City
Oct 02 – Le National / Montreal
Oct 03 – Capital Music Hall / Ottawa
Oct 05 – Phoenix / Toronto
Oct 07 – Newport Music Hall / Columbus
Oct 08 – DC9 / Washington, DC^
Oct 09 – Austin City Limits / Austin*
Oct 09 – MOTR Club / Cincinnati%
Oct 11 – St. Andrews / Detroit
Oct 12 – Metro / Chicago
Oct 13 – Turner Hall / Milwaukee
Oct 14 – First Avenue / Minneapolis
Oct 18 – Crocodile / Seattle%
Oct 19 – Woods / Portland%
Oct 21 – Popscene / San Francisco&
Oct 22 – Fox / Pomona, CA
Oct 23 – Club Nokia / Los Angeles
^ Delphic only
* the Temper Trap only (festival appearance)
% the Hundred in the Hands only
& Delphic and the Hundred in the Hands only

The Temper Trap: website | myspace | @ 9:30 Club | @ Bonnaroo 2010, Day 1 | The Temper Trap Announce August-October North American Tour with Delphic and The Hundred in the Hands | @ Showbox at the Market
Delphic: website | myspace | American Release Details of Delphic EP | Delphic’s Debut Album Streaming on Their MySpace
The Hundred in the Hands: website | myspace | ‘Pigeons’ takes flight with Foals’ remix

Australian singer/songwriter Elizabeth Morris is the frontwoman for Allo Darlin’, a London-based folk pop band that has already gotten mad props from BBC 6music DJs like Steve Lamacq and Lauren Laverne. Morris’s band have just announced plans for a club tour of America in October to occur before and after appearances at CMJ. Their first scheduled date in America is with Philadelphia band Brown Recluse on October 16.

Allo Darlin’ is signed in the UK to Fortuna Pop!, the same label as the Pains of Being at Heart. Their debut album, also called Allo Darlin’, is set to be released on October 5 in America.

Tour Dates
Oct 16 – Venue TBA / Philadelphia*
Oct 17 – Velvet Lounge / Washington, DC
Oct 18 – P.A.’s Lounge / – Boston, MA
Oct 19 – House Show – New Brunswick, NJ
Oct 20-21 – CMJ – New York, NY
Oct 25 – Spaceland / Los Angeles
Oct 27 – Rickshaw Stop / San Francisco
Oct 28 – Venue TBA / Portland
Oct 29 – Rendezvous / Seattle
Oct 30 – Mondo-ween at the Rock Shop / Brooklyn
* with Brown Recluse

Allo Darlin’: website | myspace