Thursday evening found me taking my second ever trip to Londonís Water Rats venue, after having caught a brilliant Haven show there in November of 2001. Up and comers Keane had quite a lot to live up to then. Unsurprisingly, they matched and then surpassed my expectations of them. The only songs I knew from this East Sussex trio were from their amazing Fierce Panda debut EP Everybodyís Changing, but eight amazing songs were aired out last evening.
Frontman Tom Chaplin bears quite a facial resemblance to Puressence frontman James Mudriczki and has a voice equally stunning. Chaplinís golden throated tones floated effortlessly over the keyboard tinkling of Tim Rice-Oxley and the shuffly percussion of Richard Hughes. No guitars to be found anywhere and the bass was on DAT, but neither of those were detriments; the songs were that excellent on their own. And these werenít all down tempo ballads, as most of their soaring pop gems definitely had heads bobbing, especially on the EP’s title track. As they announced what I believed to be their last song, I was slightly heartbroken to not hear my co-favorite song of 2003, ìBedshaped.î However, they had not said it was their last song, they had just introduced ìThis Is The Last TIME,î and the final song of the night was my beloved ìBedshaped.î To quote my new mate Tim Rowkins, who worked on the last album by the aforementioned Puressence, ìHow long do you think until Keane are all over Radio 2 and everyone’s mum has a copy…?î If there is any justice in this world, itíll be by yearís end. Jump on the Keane bandwagon before it rolls right over you. Youíll be able to say you remember them whenÖ
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