The Bravery 'live' at Stadium Green, Singapore (!!!)
When I visited New York in May, I passed up on The Bravery because they were playing the night I arrived, and I wanted to save that night for fighting jetlag. I was therefore very pleased when I found out that they were due to play here in August. Yesterday evening, after work, I met up with my girlfriend, passed her all my stuff, changed into a Kasabian t-shirt and got her to apply eyeliner for me. I then dashed into a toilet, smacked on dollops of gel and was all set.
Days before the gig, a friend and I were debating on whether to bring cameras. Despite snapping away at all 7 gigs I attended in NYC, I've never had the balls to bring a camera into a gig here, since local security tends to be pretty anal about everything. Our tickets also proclaimed "strictly no bottles, cameras or recording devices". We were therefore pretty dismayed when a chorus of flashbulbs went off as opening act Electrico took to the stage, and even more gutted when The Bravery came on.
For one, we were very close to the stage--close enough to get excellent shots of the band. For another, their frontman Sam Endicott is a real stage whore...much more than I expected from looking at online photos from the rest of their tour. He has a whole repertoire of camera-friendly moves which I imagine will come to be recognised as "so Sam Endicott". Classic pose 1: torso fully arched forward; left leg hiked up on a monitor; mic stand held parallel to the floor, supported by left thigh; singing with eyes painfully shut. Classic pose 2: leaning heavily on the mic stand, ass sticking out, arms half-extended with both hands clasping the mic, shaking as if being blown by a typhoon, singing with eyes painfully shut. And so on. In between striking these right-angled poses he's just swanning and stumbling all over the stage, dragging the mic stand in both hands in a fashionably shambolic manner. On two occasions he even charged offstage, leaning into the audience, holding his mic out to his adoring fans. It was hugely entertaining.
I should also mention that Endicott lasted a good five or six songs before losing his trademark military-style jacket. Props to him for holding on that long when the standard for lead singers stripping due to the heat is two songs.
The Bravery's 13-song setlist consisted of their entire debut album, a b-side and what appeared to be a song from their early days. All the album tracks were identical to their studio versions with the exception of "Public Service Announcement", which began with a prolonged synth appregio. With their pogo-tastic tempos and rhythms, the crowd was already bouncing from the start. Midway through the set, "An Honest Mistake" got the crowd moshing. (Moshing! In Singa-bleepin'-pore! There is hope for us yet.) Unfortunately, putting their biggest local hit that early in the set meant that the energy never really recovered later on, even if a bunch of people started bodysurfing. Security officers dampened the atmosphere by repeatedly threatening to pull bodysurfers over the barricade, though the offenders never surfed near enough for them to actually do so. The only person whom I saw being hauled over was a girl who had fainted from either the heat or excitement.
In a rather uncharacteristic manner for rockstars, The Bravery came storming back for their encore less than a minute after running offstage at the end of the main set. And just as quickly as they came, they were gone. The whole affair lasted under an hour. It was much better than I expected, and I can only give all the props in the world to Lushington Entertainment for taking a gamble with an up-and-coming indie act. My only regrets were not bringing a camera and narrowly missing getting my hands on the setlist. Two copies went to girls right in front of me, and they were the best kind of setlist one can get, since they were handwritten. Well, I guess I shouldn't complain...
Days before the gig, a friend and I were debating on whether to bring cameras. Despite snapping away at all 7 gigs I attended in NYC, I've never had the balls to bring a camera into a gig here, since local security tends to be pretty anal about everything. Our tickets also proclaimed "strictly no bottles, cameras or recording devices". We were therefore pretty dismayed when a chorus of flashbulbs went off as opening act Electrico took to the stage, and even more gutted when The Bravery came on.
For one, we were very close to the stage--close enough to get excellent shots of the band. For another, their frontman Sam Endicott is a real stage whore...much more than I expected from looking at online photos from the rest of their tour. He has a whole repertoire of camera-friendly moves which I imagine will come to be recognised as "so Sam Endicott". Classic pose 1: torso fully arched forward; left leg hiked up on a monitor; mic stand held parallel to the floor, supported by left thigh; singing with eyes painfully shut. Classic pose 2: leaning heavily on the mic stand, ass sticking out, arms half-extended with both hands clasping the mic, shaking as if being blown by a typhoon, singing with eyes painfully shut. And so on. In between striking these right-angled poses he's just swanning and stumbling all over the stage, dragging the mic stand in both hands in a fashionably shambolic manner. On two occasions he even charged offstage, leaning into the audience, holding his mic out to his adoring fans. It was hugely entertaining.
I should also mention that Endicott lasted a good five or six songs before losing his trademark military-style jacket. Props to him for holding on that long when the standard for lead singers stripping due to the heat is two songs.
The Bravery's 13-song setlist consisted of their entire debut album, a b-side and what appeared to be a song from their early days. All the album tracks were identical to their studio versions with the exception of "Public Service Announcement", which began with a prolonged synth appregio. With their pogo-tastic tempos and rhythms, the crowd was already bouncing from the start. Midway through the set, "An Honest Mistake" got the crowd moshing. (Moshing! In Singa-bleepin'-pore! There is hope for us yet.) Unfortunately, putting their biggest local hit that early in the set meant that the energy never really recovered later on, even if a bunch of people started bodysurfing. Security officers dampened the atmosphere by repeatedly threatening to pull bodysurfers over the barricade, though the offenders never surfed near enough for them to actually do so. The only person whom I saw being hauled over was a girl who had fainted from either the heat or excitement.
In a rather uncharacteristic manner for rockstars, The Bravery came storming back for their encore less than a minute after running offstage at the end of the main set. And just as quickly as they came, they were gone. The whole affair lasted under an hour. It was much better than I expected, and I can only give all the props in the world to Lushington Entertainment for taking a gamble with an up-and-coming indie act. My only regrets were not bringing a camera and narrowly missing getting my hands on the setlist. Two copies went to girls right in front of me, and they were the best kind of setlist one can get, since they were handwritten. Well, I guess I shouldn't complain...
Setlist, with Sam's introductory remarks (as I recall)
- Rites of Spring
- Out of Line
- Swollen Summer ("Hey Singapore, how're ya doing? This one's called Swollen Summer")
- Give in ("Last night we went and ate some durians. Now THAT is some fucked up shit! It smells like used diapers, and tastes like...coffee-flavoured toothpaste. You guys are some tough motherfuckers!")
- Public Service Announcement
- Tyrant ("Let me tell you a story. I was once in love with this girl, and then we broke up... ...I could hear her in the next room with another man. So I wrote this song for her, it's called 'Tyrant'")
- An Honest Mistake
- No Brakes ("Whoo! You're a fucking amazing audience! Okay, this one's called 'No Brakes'")
- Ring Song ("This is a song about living in New York City and not being able to see what's right in front of you. It's called 'Ring Song'")
- An Cat Dubh ("Recently we had the honour for opening for a band I really love, that I listened to when growing up...U2. So this is like our thank you to them. I don't really know how to pronounce the title 'cos it's Gaelic, but in English it means 'The Black Cat'")
- Unconditional
- Fearless ("You guys want another one?")
- (Some old song of theirs) ("You guys want another one? Okay we got time for one more. Sing along if you recognise this one. You've been an amazing audience. Thank you and good night")
posted by The Empty Signifier @ 8/07/2005 03:42:00 am
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