Plain White T’s
After the huge success of ‘Every Second Counts’ Plain White T’s have had the pleasure of playing all over the world. I had the pleasure of seeing them live at the SOLD OUT London Astoria gig, and boy what a night it was.
This is a band that doesn’t rely on fancy lighting, scenery and entrances; they focus on the important elements like music and stage performance to keep an audience engrossed in their live sets. The set on this particular night included tracks from a number of their albums; the most popular of course being their most recent release like ‘Hate’, ‘Write You A Song’ and ‘Take You There’. The intense ‘You And Me’ was one of the best performances of the night.
One element that actually made me laugh during this gig was during the ballad tracks. You know how sometimes to show appreciation towards a particular track, most specifically a ballad, lighters are in the air and the arms begin to sway back and forth. Well, this occurred with a more modern feel to it. During ‘Write You A Song’ and of course their most popular track ‘Hey There Dahlia’, all you could see was a mist of mobile phones in the hands of swaying arms. It was truly quite something.
Do you ever hate it when the lead singer of a band stands at the front of the stage, microphone in hand motionless while other band members are behind with more movement? This was defiantly not the case here. Lead singer Tom, is one of the most energetic singers I have ever seen performing. He bounces about the stage without fear of wearing out, sings his heart out and most of all entertains a crowd with his lyrical hand gestures. On ‘Write You A Song’ each of the guitarists and bassist stand a front and watch as the crowd enjoy. I hate to see seemingly choreographed moves from guitarists; it makes for a dull and rather unoriginal performance. On stage the front four-man seem to be able to move as they wish, each in their own pace and rhythm while also being able to fit in with what everyone in their surroundings; this was much more notable on ‘It Wont Be September’.
Tom may have got roughed up a little as he shoot off stage into the cowed, but I’m sure that was what made the night one to remember for and, and crowd.