Temper Trap's singalong mission accomplished - Sydney Morning Herald

The Temper Trap

Reviewer rating:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Enmore Theatre, May 1

A typical Temper Trap song runs somewhat counter to a typical Temper Trap show, but the result is the same really.

Most songs (particularly from the first album) begin slowly, hinting at rhythm to come, and build progressively through a verse or two with guitars edging up in both pace and prominence (particularly if the song is from the second album) until the chorus bursts through like a race winner breasting the tape. Then repeat at greater pace one or two times until a minor state of euphoria is reached.

If it works a treat in Love Lost to open the show, gives it a run of tom toms in Down River mid-show and pounds in message during Resurrection, it certainly reaches its apogee in the inevitable closer of Sweet Disposition, whose live version now shows that delayed climax is not just a tantric philosophy.

When it comes to show time, though, it's euphoria early, middle and late for an audience that connects in a way that overrides any doubt you (ok, I) might have about the relative shallowness of the material.

Faces beam, mouths move in echoing the lyrics and when those choruses explode so does the room. Yes, even for the new song, Summer's Almost Gone.

There's nothing unexpected in their structures, provocative in their commentary or bold in their trajectory, but that's not what is being asked for: these are songs made for you to actually or metaphorically throw your arm over the shoulder of the friend/lover/complete stranger beside you and sing together. Mission accomplished.

(Apropos of not a hell of a lot, you have to admire a man who not only plays his bass up so high it could choke him but does it while wearing a red and white striped cardigan. Now that's funk'n'roll! Actually, the high bass does make you wonder if there shouldn't be a variation on that famous aphorism about the accordion which could go “a gentleman is someone who could play slap bass but doesn't”. On that basis, whatever you say about the cardigan, Mr Jonathon Aherne is a gentleman.)