Keane/Regina Spektor - Radio City
Yawn. I’m not an alcoholic by any means, but perhaps I should have gone
to the Regina Spektor/Keane show intoxicated. However much to the
dismay of my bank account, I went sober. I had some nice seats close to
the stage. As I entered the show, the much buzzed about Regina Spektor
was clamoring away at the piano. I was quite excited to see her live;
emphasize was. Her voice was
amazing until she added senseless grunting paired with noises that
resembled moans you make while releasing a long run of constipation.
Perhaps she does this to set her apart from other singer/songwriters or
to stress her uniqueness, but the result was more annoying than ironic.
By the third song, I got the picture and started to think about French
fries and how I haven’t eaten since the smoothie at lunch time. Regina
then moved to the guitar, which she prefaced with a warning about her
not-very-good guitar playing skills…and she was right. At last the set
was coming to an end, where she decided to do a reincarnation of a
Billie Holiday song a cappella. Midway through the lyrics she toted
“Go-Away” which got a loud man in the audience to spout “Yes please go
away” which Regina then sung in retort “Fuck You.’ Ah, the entertaining
value of audience/artist banter.
Regina leaves the stage and the
audience starts trickling in for the headliner Keane. This allows time
for my favorite sport: crowd watching. Frat boys, teen girls, older
folk thinking they are cooler than their co-workers, and super Keane
fans with their fancy new Keane t-shirts all start to pile into their
seats. I’m just excited to see a show sitting down for a change! Now
I’m biased, I’ve seen Keane before at a special acoustic show, and had
no desire to see them again. But who am I to turn down a free ticket?
So here I am again, hoping they show me why in the hell they are
playing Radio City. The almighty Brits take stage with their piano/drum
only combo. The audience goes nuts..I mean nuts. No one is left sitting
down, and I think to myself..is Keane REALLY this popular?
I’m bored..I mean really bored. Keane is probably one of the MOST
boring bands I’ve ever witnessed. Are they bad? No. But they are sure
bland, with one song running into another running into another. The
lead singer Tom Chaplin engages the audience by announcing how shocked
they are they are playing Radio City..You know what? So am I.
What’s
more mind numbing is that the show is sold out! A whole slew of people
forked out 50 dollars to see one of the most non-unique bands around.
Well, the lucky fans were graced with three brand new Keane songs,
which sounded like all the other Keane songs, resulting in total
audience excitement. The crowd was dancing, playing air piano, waving
their hands in a common fan sway, the works. Mr Chaplin continued to
tell the audience how insane it was that Keane, yes Keane, was playing
such a legendary venue. Maybe Keane realizes the generic genre of music
they are producing, and themselves are in total awe that people are
actually buying into it.
Keane of course does the typical
encore, where Tom preps a new song as “This is the best song we’ve ever
written.” I’m on the edge of my seat!!! The piano man Tim prances away
at the keys, forming sounds that well sound like the last hour of Keane
songs. If that’s the best they’ve got, I’d rather eat French fries.
