“If only I don’t bend and break, I’ll meet you on the other side, I’ll meet you in the light. If only I don’t suffocate, I’ll meet you in the morning when you wake.” Thoughts and emotions I heard relayed last Friday evening.
To clarify the above wasn’t delivered as a morbid goodnight message from my partner, Sarah. An audio memo directed at her enigmatic beau telling of her ‘glass half empty’ concerns the erratic fella may smother her with a pillow.
No, the observations were aimed in song to an audience of 13,000 fans by Sussex band Keane. Lyrics delivered during the chorus of their 2005 refrain ‘Bend and Break’; my partner and me lucky enough to witness Friday’s alt-rock jamboree, at Leeds Arena.
Spoiler Alert – Sarah and I avoided overnight suffocation; waking at approximately 8.30am the following morning… Although, as I am writing this, you probably already guessed that part.
The performance we attended was part of Keane’s 20th anniversary tour, celebrating two decades since they released debut album Hopes and Fears.
An evening where I not only learned how good the fortysomething quartet were live, but also the extent I had forgotten lyrics to even their most famous tunes. My brain freezing in several places when attempting to join in with Tom Chaplin’s smooth delivery. Twenty years of the ageing process seeing me drift into middle-age, along with irresponsible alcohol intake, no doubt key contributors to my incorrect word salad.
Luckily, though, Chaplin, Richard Hughes, Tim Rice-Oxley and Jesse Quin had prepared for the sing-alongs more thoroughly than yours truly. Not only successfully remembering the words, but getting the melodies spot on. Leeds… In fact they recalled the pieces so well you’d have thought they wrote them and performed them before. 😉
First Direct Arena’s domed performance area affording each refrain the splendid acoustics the standards warranted. Enhancing the experience, journeying me back to 2004 and my old marital home in East Leeds. Days I’d sit on the easy chair in my dining room contentedly listening to these uplifting songs for the first time. An era when I could recall the lyrics.
As well as ‘Bend and Break’, musical trinkets such as ‘Everybody’s Changing’, ‘Somewhere Only We Know’, ‘This Is the Last Time’, and ‘Bedshaped’ unshackled crowd inhibitions; forming a backing group of thousands who enthusiastically belted out these much loved refrains… I’m taking it as read most of them recalled the correct lyrics better than I that evening.
In my defence, having sung ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ a few times on karaoke, I did know the words to that particular chant. On this occasion my memory holding firm, despite a pre-gig bottle of wine’s best attempt to interfere with my cognitive wherewithal.
Do I sing ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ as accomplishedly as Tom Chaplin?… I don’t even sing it as well as Charlie Chaplin, and he’s been dead for 47 years!
However, like the joy of witnessing Friday night’s gig, despite ‘murdering’ the Keane lads’ musical masterpiece, via karaoke, it always augments my euphoria levels to a plateau not many other songs muster.
Joining the audience at singing it with the fellas who wrote and perform the song properly, ensuring I left the arena with a Zebedee-like spring in my step at the performance’s denouement.
Of course, one song doth not make a gig. It merely topped off a thoroughly enjoyable evening of musical entertainment… Leaving the First Direct Arena that evening I felt the earth beneath my feet; gig by the River Aire made me complete.
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