Let yourself fall into this or The heart on the tongue

The Temper Trap, Support: Yokko

fm4 Indiekiste, WUK, Vienna, Austria, 2017-02-02

The Australian Indierock-Band The Temper Trap is something for connoisseurs of the genre. So it is not surprising, that their Vienna gig is presented by the fm4 Indiekiste, a series of events of the radio station for niches.

As support, they could get the band Yokko from Switzerland. The radio station SRF 3 already said about their debut, that they are setting new standards in Swiss pop, and they are right. Not only the songs are catchy, performing live, the band catches their audience with their intense and dynamic show. Especially their voices are impressive. Lead singer Adrian Erni delivers a great job at high notes, as well as at deeper tunes, and the whole band proofs their skill in multi-voice singing several times. Like that, hits like “River” work great as well as new songs like “Heart on Fire”.

As the support already brings comparisons like U2 to one’s mind, The Temper Trap underline the direction of the sound from the beginning. So they start their show with the opener and title track “Thick as Thieves”, a rolling rocker, that makes you want more. Unfortunately, from that point on, most of the songs start nice and seem to bring up an increase of dynamic, but then end up with only the pure repetition of the already heard. That does not hold most of the audience from enjoying the gig and dance friskily. During tracks like “Trembling Hands”, that reminds of Duran Duran, people rock themselves happily with closed eyes, while the big songs like “Fader” or the final song of the show “Sweet Disposition” get celebrated frenetically.

In the end, The Temper Trap is a really quiet band and so is their show, but if you know how to let yourself fall into this, you have won. And anyway, all the time it seems that Dougy Mandagi has his heart on his tongue, what alone deserves big respect.