A Glorious Keane and an Evil Usurper

May 30th was the day of the long-awaited Keane concert. Since I am a huge fan, I was pretty impatient with the band, and their concert delay nearly caused them to lose their Favorite Band For Life status. (Especially since Travis was such a nice show, and will be again on July 14th in NYC!) But the concert once again reminded me of how much I enjoy Keane's music.

First of all, I like them because not a lot of people are familiar with their tunes; they don't get huge amounts of airtime. This means that I will not spend extraordinary amounts of money to sit in the back row of a large arena just to see them. I like more intimate concerts where I can get close to the stage and actually feel like I am watching them live and not on TV. This particular concert was at Rumsey Field in Central Park. Since I was not sure if that was a large or small venue, I decided to take a day off work so I could scope out the park and get good seats for my friends that would be showing up later.

I was at the park by three o'clock in order to find the field. I have not been a frequent visitor to Central Park. Lame, huh? Prior to the concert I had been there once, maybe twice, but obviously hadn't seen anything of interest. (FYI, I was there today, and saw a little bit more, but there is still a lot of park to cover.) I found the venue rather quickly and noticed that there was already a line fifty people deep of concert-goers. That ruined my park exploration plans; instead I plopped my stuff down as concert-goer fifty-one, grabbed my book and waited the 2.5 hours for the doors to open. That sounds like a waste of a couple of good hours for a good place to stand at a show, but I was able to listen to Keane's sound check.

Finally, the doors open, and I found a place for my friends to watch the show. We were about five people from the stage. That's a good distance. Soon my friends arrived, and we waited and waited for the show to begin. The opening band was Rocco DeLuca and the Burden. I must say that the band was very good for an opener. I thought it interesting that they were chosen because the music was very bluesy, a stark contrast to Keane's more pop-sounding introspective anthems. Nonetheless Mr. DeLuca played his heart out. During their set, I was hoping for a Keifer Sutherland sighting. Apparently, Keifer helped produce their CD, so I thought it would be fitting if he were hanging out in the sidelines. Alas, no such luck. However the audience did get a celebrity sighting--one that nearly ruined my concert experience.

Richard mentioned that he saw Blake Lewis, of American Idol, buying a hot dog near the venue. Big freaking deal...although he had his fans surrounding him. After eating his hot dog Blake decided to show up at the Keane concert during Rocco DeLuca's last song. Rocco was playing his little fingers off when multitudes of heads and cameras were turned to the right of the stage where Blake Lewis was shaking hands and having his picture taken with fans...during someone else's performance. It was really obnoxious and interruptive. A real celebrity with any class would have snuck around back and not stolen anyone's thunder. We all wondered why he had shown up, and Alejandro reminded us that Blake sang a Keane song on the show. He suggested that perhaps Blake was going to sing with the band. Digusting. I vowed that I would Boo very loudly if that usurper took the stage. Fortunately, he didn't. It was all Keane.

Keane concerts are five hundred times better than listening to them on CD and the radio. Recorded music has not yet been able to capture the energy and passion that goes into a live show. I remember seeing Keane in September of 2004 at the Showbox in Seattle. They had some lights, but no special effects or audio/visual enhancements, but it was the best concert I had ever attended. I was smitten with the band ever since. My fourth Keane concert did not disappoint either. By this time, I expected that the art-loving musicians would add artsy a/v effects, and I was correct in that assumption. In some songs they used the incredible graphics from their album covers, and an interesting ballroom dance video for "A Bad Dream" that added an eeriness to the song. Brilliant.

Tom Chaplin's voice and performance ability was not lacking. He is in much better shape than he had been in past shows. It looks like rehab treated him well, and he is continuing to take care of himself. He showed off more of his talents by picking up an accoustic guitar for "Your Eyes Open." The other members, Tim Rice-Oxley and Richard Hughes did not disappoint. Tim moves around so much when he plays, I am always amazed that the songs still sound right. During the audience-interaction moments the band was very honest with the issues they have struggled through recently: near break-up, rehab...but they seem to be very focused on remaining friends, and remaining a band. yeah! According to the blog, they are starting to work on album number three. double yeah! Plus, as usual, the band showed immense appreciation for the fans. That always helps.

It was great, and they better darn well not take too long coming back to the city!!!