Show Review: Keane at Royal Oak Music Theatre January 27, 2013
Veteran brit-pop band, Keane, came through Metro Detroit on Sunday night in support for their fourth studio album, Strangeland. Keane broke through in the US in 2004 with their debut album "Hopes and Fears", which featured the hit singles "Everybody's Changing" and "Somewhere Only We Know." Since then, their success in the US has been varied, scoring semi-hits along the way with "Is It Any Wonder", "Spiraling", and most recently, "Silenced By The Light". Keane have a nice sized fan base and name recognition in the US, but have never turned into major players in the US, unlike other arena-filling bands of the last decade like The Killers, Coldplay and Muse.
Playing to a nicely filled, but not sold out, Royal Oak Music Theatre, Keane played to an audience full of seemingly excited fans. They opened their show with the melodic "You Are Young", though not the Fun. song, who coincidentally were in town the night prior. Keane followed with fan favorite "Bend and Break" from their debut release and continued the evening with a string of singles, fan favorites and Strangeland tracks bringing the show from moody to upbeat and back around again.
As a band, Keane possess a penchant for melodic melancholia throughout their songs. Lead singer, Tom Chaplin, has tremendous vocal delivery and charisma on stage, though he doesn't come off as the typical egocentric rock and roll front man. On stage, Chaplin smoothly sails from song to song, coming off as cool, calm, collected and relaxed, yet always staying polished. One couldn't say that Chaplin looks like he's trying overly hard to be a convincing front man, as it looks like it just comes natural to him.
Keane continued the show with their melancholic roster of songs "Nothing In My Way", "Somewhere Only We Know", and "Everybody's Changing". They picked up the energy with Strangeland single "Silenced By The Light", the funky "Spiraling" and the anthemic rock and roller "Is It Any Wonder?" Keane's stage show has the same pizzazz of many arena ready bands, yet Keane are just not at that level of fame in the US, which is unfortunate. Many of the fans seem quite passionate about Chaplins lyrics, lipping or singing them throughout most of the performance. All in all, Keane are best when performing their gloomy and melancholic works, yet they still find the light when doing their more upbeat and arena inspired fare.
Opening the show was, LA-based band, Youngblood Hawke whose single "We Come Running" is currently a massive hit on Modern Rock radio. Youngblood Hawke were recently in Royal Oak in November playing at the same venue while opening for Passion Pit. Their performance of "We Come Running" turned into the huge audience sing-a-long that it was obviously intended to be. On a side note, the band's tambourine and percussion vixen, Alice Katz, may soon become the new indie rock standard among lust worthy female band members.