Keane "Perfect Symmetry" London Kentish Forum 29.9.08Video by: girlmousyhair
Picture by Lara
Picture by: nickya
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Pictures by: Anna1976
Keane, Forum, London
By Richard Clayton
Terça-feira Set 30 2008 13:05
After selling a total 8m copies with their first two LPs, and with the housing market on the skids, Keane - so often denegrated as purveyors of sappy, let's-settle-down-together mortgage-rock - are changing their business model. Perfect Symmetry, their third album, is out on October 13 and early reports suggest it casts off their earnest, piano-pounding and, frankly, wearying formula for something sparky, 1980s-influenced and fun even. For once, you can believe the hype.
The atmosphere at this preview gig, organised by the Pravda of music journalism, Q magazine, was overwhelmingly affirmative, but the band's dash and vigour vindicated their new direction. They emerged to the Top Gun theme onto a stage that had just been strafed by sodium lights. The backdrop was a mural of interlocking triangles in red, yellow and blue, one of which had taken 3D form, like a large slice of cheese, to occupy Richard Hughes's drumkit. For a group hitherto as bold as washing powder, the design was as multicoloured as Swap Shop.
Happily, the new material was equally vibrant. "You took the pieces of the dreams that you had / because you don't like the way they seem to be going," sang Tom Chaplin, coltishly clean-cut with his chubby days and cocaine nights far behind him, during "The Lovers Are Losing" - lyrics for a loan default if ever you needed them. Yet the epic whinging that verged on the insufferable in earlier output appears replaced by brash, credit-crunch-be-damned repossession pop.
"If in doubt, listen to David Bowie," is the motto for any band seeking to change their sound, and Keane have clearly been listening intently. "The Lovers Are Losing" cribs the propulsive drone from the start of "Heroes", while "Better Than This" echoes to those shrill, stabbing synth-tones that act like depth-charges in "Ashes to Ashes". I'm not complaining, because this is the most exciting music Keane have made - and judging from the elastic way Tim Rice-Oxley jiggled on his piano stool, their songwriter knows it, too.
Old favourites such as "Somewhere Only We Know" were triumphantly received, but the band, augmented powerfully to a four-piece, looked relieved to be moving on. Perfect Symmetry isn't their Kid A, but it could be their Achtung Baby.Tel )20 7344 0044Source:
http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto093020081418323533Upcoming dates (* 29 September 2008 Forum London UK *)
23 October 2008 Koko (BBC Electric Proms) London UK
27 October 2008 Lotto Arena Antwerp Belgium
28 October 2008 Ahoy Rotterdam The Netherlands
31 October 2008 Valby Hall Copenhagen Denmark
01 November 2008 Annex Stockholm Sweden
03 November 2008 Sentrum Oslo Norway
05 November 2008 Palladium Cologne Germany
06 November 2008 Tempodrom Berlin Germany
07 November 2008 Zenith Munich Germany
09 November 2008 Razzmatazz Barcelona Spain
11 November 2008 La Riviera Madrid Spain
12 November 2008 Coliseu Lisbon Portugal
15 November 2008 Union Chapel London UK
20 November 2008 Zenith Paris France
23 January 2009 Odyssey Arena Belfast UK
25 January 2009 The O2 Dublin Ireland
27 January 2009 Arena Newcastle UK
29 January 2009 SECC Glasgow UK
31 January 2009 MEN Manchester UK
01 February 2009 Arena Nottingham UK
03 February 2009 BIC Bournemouth UK
04 February 2009 Arena Cardiff UK
06 February 2009 Arena Sheffield UK
07 February 2009 Echo Arena Liverpool UK
09 February 2009 Pavilions Plymouth UK
10 February 2009 Centre Brighton UK
12 February 2009 O2 Arena London UK
Source: www.keanemusic.com
