Keane: Friday

By Andy Smith

Before ACL Fest 2005, my exposure to Keane had been from reading about them in the UK music press and hearing about them from friends who described them as "Coldplay-lite," which didn't sound very exciting. With me also being a bit of rock traditionalist, the idea of a band without a guitar or bass player who played mostly pretty ballads sounded like a big yawn. So there I was on Friday night, wandering around without a fixed destination near the AMD Stage when I heard Keane begin their set and immediately realized that there was a very good reason why this band has been so popular in the UK and is on the rise in the US as well.

For those unfamiliar with Keane, the band is comprised of three members: piano player Tim Rice-Oxley, drummer Richard Hughes, and vocalist Tom Chaplin. With a lineup as stripped down as this, the only way the band can have any kind of an impact in front of a large audience is to be as energetic and compelling as possible. Rice-Oxley and Hughes did their part playing with tremendous exuberance and fire giving the band's relatively easy-going material a needed kick in the ass. Rice-Oxley pounded the keys while Hughes' tasteful drumming gave the songs the necessary dynamic kick.

Still with his bandmates comfortably seated behind him, the onus fell on Chaplin to really carry the show, and he delivered. One can only imagine the pressure this guy must feel in having to really be the sole main visual focal point for Keane's stage show, and also because he only sings, there is no instrument for him to hide behind leaving him completely exposed at the front of the stage. But with this having been the situation for a long time, Chaplin obviously has plenty of skill and charisma as a performer otherwise Keane never would have made it out of the local pubs. Not only that, the guy has a magnificent tenor voice with great range, power, and feel, and purely as a singer, he easily tops Chris Martin and can hit high notes in his full voice that Martin has to rely on falsetto to reach.

The ACL crowd responded to Keane with genuine excitement, immediately warming to Chaplin's heartfelt stage presence as well as the band's ability to transcend the sonic limitations of having only two instruments. This was especially evident in the volume of the crowd's sing-along to Keane's hit single "Somewhere Only We Know" which seemed to both surprise and delight Chaplin as he stood on the edge of the stage with the microphone held out toward the crowd. His comment about how the band grew up in a small English town, and how incredible it was to be on stage in front of such a large American crowd sounded sincere, and the fans certainly returned the love.

Since the show, I have listened to the band's Hopes and Fears record, and though it is certainly pretty and pleasant, it suffers from too much similarity and becomes too precious, but live, Keane proves why there has been so much hype surrounding them as the songs take flight and the band makes believers out of cynics like me.