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Live at The O2 Arena, London 13/2/09
Led Zepellin, Bon Jovi, Prince, Kylie and now Keane – the boys from Battle have come a long way in five short years as their ‘Perfect Symmetry’ UK Tour ended at the O2 arena.
And no less than 20,000 people were either seated or clustered in the floor
space as the spectacular coliseum was blanketed in darkness just after half
nine.
The stage became illuminated in a light display, reminiscent of their latest
disc as the boys made their way out on stage, launching into ‘Lovers are Losing’.
Although there had been earlier concerns over Tom
Chaplin’s voice, it seemed in good shape as he belted the opener out. The assembled fans
resembled Manchester United’s ‘Prawn Sandwich Brigade’ in static silence as Chaplin announced that London was “the greatest city on Earth”. This may have just been the push they needed, although playing ‘Hopes and Fears’ classic ‘Everybody’s Changing’ will no doubt have helped.
What soon became apparent is the excellent sound and lighting team that Keane
have choreographing their stage show. The giant screens astride the side of the
stage flushed with spell-binding graphics and blinding lasers adorning the
stage. These were especially prominent during ‘You Haven’t Told Me Anything’. It should also be noted that Chaplin’s voice especially benefits from this, giving it precedence over the noise
explosions of Tim Rice-Oxley’s keyboard – certainly compared to their festival showings.
Keane’s stage performance is as genuine as it is sometimes cringe-worthy. Chaplin was
the only member of the band that performed on every song, but some of his
comments between songs about feeling the love and particularly the whole band
taking bows after songs was a bit much. Still in fairness, the performance of
classics like ‘Bad Dream’, ‘Better Than This’, ‘Again and Again’ and ‘Spiralling’ were energetically and faithfully recreated.
Midway through the gig, the band moved to the catwalk end of the stage to
perform rarity ‘Snowed Under’ and the classic ‘Sunshine’ which was good for the audience as it gave a personal touch to such formal
surroundings. The crowd had finally
found their voice during ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ and a mass clap-a-long had ensued during ‘Hocus Pocus’ which was slightly startling as to the band’s evident popularity.
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After a short pause, the band returned for an all-conquering encore which
consisted of new album classic, ‘Black Burning Heart’, past hit, ‘Is It Any Wonder?’ and the epic closer, ‘Bedshaped’. It has to go down as a triumphant performance from a band who have scaled to
unexpected heights. Say what you will about Keane but there aren’t many bands that work as hard live or that can sell-out The O2 two nights in a
row.
9/10 CM
(c) ChrisOnline.biz 2009
