Temper Trap at the Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (03/23/10)

Tour Dates 03/24/10 Metro Chicago, Illinois 03/26/10 Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH 03/27/10  House of Blues Cleveland, OH 03/30/10 The Mod Club Toronto, ON 03/31/10 Cabaret du Musee  Montreal, QB 04/02/10 Webster Hall New York 04/03/10 Theatre of Living Arts Phila PA 04/05/10 Music Hall  Brooklyn, NY 04/06/10 9:30 Club Washington DC 04/08/10 Cats Cradle Carrboro, NC 04/09/10 The Loft Northwest Atlanta, GA 04/10/10 The Orange Peel Asheville, NC 04/12/10 Pontiac Garage at HOB Dallas, TX 04/13/10 Emo’s Austin, TX 04/15/10 Clubhouse Tempe, AZ 04/17/10 Coachella Indio, CA 04/19/10 Belly Up Tavern Solana Beach., CA 04/27/10 O2 Academy Bournemouth 04/28/10 O2 Shepherds Bush Empire 04/29/10 O2 Shepherds Bush Empire 04/30/10 O2 Shepherds Bush Empire 05/02/10 University Cardiff 05/03/10 Rock City Nottingham 05/04/10 Birmingham O2 Academy 05/05/10 UEA Norwich 05/09/10 The Academy Manchester 05/10/10 Newcastle O2 Academy 05/11/10 Leeds O2 Academy Leeds 05/13/10 Glasgow O2 Academy 05/14/10 HMV Picture House Edinburgh 05/16/10 Liverpool O2 Academy 05/26/10 Trabendo Paris 05/27/10 Melkweg Max Amsterdam 05/28/10 Pinkpop Festival Landgraaf 05/31/10 Sasquatch! Festival Quincy, WA 06/10/10 Bonnaroo Fest Manchester, TN 06/15/10 Circolo degli Artisti Rome 06/16/10 Alcatraz Milan 06/18/10 Hurricane festival Scheessel 06/19/10 Southside Festival Neuhausen 06/20/10 Karlstorbahnhof Heidelberg 06/21/10 Live Music Hall Cologne 06/23/10 Club De Atelier Luxembourg 06/25/10 St.Gallen St Gallen 07/02/10 Wireless festival, Hyde Park 07/03/10 Wetchter Festival Werchter 07/04/10 Roskilde Festival Roskilde 07/09/10 Oxegen Festival Puncheston 07/10/10 T in the Park Festival Kinross 07/12/10 Somerset House London 07/15/10 Fest Internacional De Benicassim 07/22/10 Metro City - Perth  Australia 07/24/10 Festival Hall- Melbourne, Victoria 07/27/10 Hordern Pavilion - Sydney 08/01/10 Powerstation Auckland 08/21/10 V Festival Chelmsford 08/22/10 V Festival Staffordshire Discography [2006] The Temper Trap EP [2009] Conditions

Since I do a semi-show with Aussies Sally and Kristen, so I do try and keep an ear and eye out for Australian bands - you know, to keep up. The Temper Trap is probably one of those Australian bands that they probably hate based on how popular they are.  Seeing as they've been featured on the soundtrack to 500 Days of Summer, car advertisements, and had several nominations for ARIA awards, they seem worth checking out... I mean, they wouldn't be getting all this attention if they weren't any good right?

So, while doing research on the band, it seems that the band's tour bus broke down yesterday. The news broke on their twitter:

Just woke up to find out we are only 20 miles from where we started. Bus has broken down. Hope we make it to Milwaukee.
2:10 PM Mar 22nd via Twitterrific

They had to cancel their Milwaukee show, but fortunately they got it all together for the sold-out Varsity Theater show in Minneapolis, in part thanks to The Current radio station and vita.mn.

The Kissaway Trail at The Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (3/25/10)

The Kissaway Trail (official / myspace) opened up for the show, they seem really happy to be here tonight. Brody said that this Denmark band was the best band he's seen at SXSW.

They're young, I'll give you that. They also had a tambourine player, whom Sally reckons it's the "best job in the world". Since their album is not out yet in the US (the pending release date is April 20^th), I was not familiar with any of their songs. There was one song that stood out for me, "Philadelphia", which contains the lyrics "City of brothers in arms".

Temper Trap at The Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (3/25/10)

Even before The Temper Trap step on stage, they had a very good roadie, who prepared all the instruments and made sure they were all tuned and in order. I get the impression, based on his professionalism, that he's been the Temper Trap's roadie for a long time and that he may have been in a band in his youth (perhaps as a bassist).

Singer Dougie Mandagi sounds to me like he's doing that voice from another Australian band, Empire of the Sun, but in a weird Thom York-esque manner. He was dressed warmly, probably not used to this Minnesota weather, but by the middle of the set, off went his beanie and sweats.

Jonathon Aherne

Their music is basically alt-rock, lots of guitars and lyrics. They also have one of the best and energetic bass player, Jonathon Aherne, who is rarely seen without his hair in his face and all over the place.

As you can see from their set list, they ended their show with "Drum Song", which required a solo drum stand for Mandagi. While I can only assume that pouring the water in the drum's been done on Temper Trap's many gigs, so I figured that the whole thing is very well orchestrated - and such that their set list remains relatively unchanged from show to show (ending with the epic "Drum Song")

They did two songs for their encore, one of which was a new/more acoustic song called "Rabbit Hole".

They have been selling out all their shows (especially all their shows in London), so I felt very lucky to have catch them at such a nice, intimate setting.

 03/24/2010 02:33:44 ♥ vu () ♥ thetempertrap.net ♥ myspace.com ♥ twitter.com