[phlipcam video] Temper Trap @ the HoB

The Temper Trap-- Love Lost

Even though we couldn't get any of you interested in a free pair of Temper Trap tickets to last night's show at the House of Blues (for shame, there's a few of us over here who would take a free pair of tickets to a paint-drying exhibition if they were offered 'cause, well, they're free) I made it over there. And the show, albeit short (considering these guys only have one album under their belt, their set-list is bound to be limited,) was pretty packed. Packed with sort of a weird crowd, at that. I confess I found myself a little distracted during one of lead singer Dougie Mandagi's many tribal-style drum solos (dude loves his drums) by the guido slash iBanker type to my direct left, if that is indeed a type, performing some sort of weird ballet routine with his date. A ballet routine that somehow incorporated a lot of vigorous pelvis thrusts and not-so-discreet groping. So there was that.

The roughly hour and change show kept the crowd pretty enthralled. They opened the show with a purely instrumental number: Mandagi (who stripped off a cowl neck sweater mid-show to reveal some surprisingly jacked arms, must be all the wild percussion) pounding away at said drums while his fellow band-mates wailed eerily into their mics. Most of the show's numbers were a pleasantly far cry from the commercialized sound most of us have come to expect from hearing "Sweet Disposition" in every other network drama and commercial on TV. But, yea, they played that too and the crowd ate it up. A note on the iBanker/Guido: he and his smarmy-looking friend traded ladies mid-show, and then he disappeared, leaving both girls to his very pleased friend. And everyone left happy.