The Sins Of My Youth.

Posted by L. on July 27, 2011 · 1 Comment 

Hello, blogosphere. I’m back, and I bring to you a combined review of the Neon Trees concert last night and their Habits album.

I managed to get free entry to the concert thanks to good friends with good connections last week and wasn’t actually keen on going since I don’t know any songs by the opening act, We Are Scientists, and the only song I know knew by the headliners was Animal (side story later), but y’know, being Singaporean and all, I figured I might as well go since the ticket was free. That was a really long sentence.

Kinda last minute, but I listened to the Habits album a couple of times the day before the concert cos I find that I don’t enjoy concerts half as much if I don’t know any of the songs and can’t join in the whole crowd singalong thing. There are only 8 tracks on the album with a total playback time of, what, 25 minutes? When Q said the album was under half an hour, I didn’t expect only 8 songs. Then again, I think it might have been a wise move cause all 8 tracks are easy to listen to, catchy, and generally groovy. Tyler Glenn reminds me of Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance at times, especially on the track ‘In The Next Room’ (the song sounds a little like MCR’s ‘House of Wolves’), and the band’s style generally leans towards The Killers which I expected since they were ever the opening act for Brandon Flowers & co. I figured the band would play songs that weren’t on the album too cos 8 songs just won’t cut it for a full headlining set, but I decided not to check out their EP and focus on getting familiar with the LP instead. Apart from Animal, definitely check out the first track ‘The Sins of My Youth’ and ‘1983’ if you can’t spare 25 minutes (you must be an extremely busy person).

The concert itself was good, I must say. Tyler Glenn’s vocals are amazing. I’m quite sure he has perfect pitch (or really good memory) because after long breaks in the middle of a song (2 songs, actually) with nothing but Elaine Bradley keeping time on the drums and Tyler interacting with the crowd, he would go back into the song perfectly in tune. Insane! He also did some screaming right at the end of (I think it was) ‘1983’, and boy can he scream. Hello, newfound respect. I have a huge amount of respect for Elaine Bradley too cos she looks like she’s having a wild time behind the drumset drilling out those 32-note beats, and is still able to sing in perfect harmony with Tyler. Plus, I like her hair.

On a sidenote, some people on my Twitter timeline wondered why We Are Scientists opened for Neon Trees and not the other way round, since the former has been around longer than the latter. I wondered about that too, but when you actually watch both acts in succession, you’ll understand why. Neon Trees’ set felt bigger (and had more theatrics), and the band members seemed to have more presence on stage. Perhaps it’s the way the stage was set up for each band as well. I loved how funny and down to earth the We Are Scientists guys were with their owl jokes and jabs at the bassist. Their songs were catchy too, but I found them to be a bit repetitive though (and they were also short in duration). I guess I won’t fully understand this “imbalanced pairing” of acts since I’m not exactly a fan of either, but this is just how I felt after actually attending the whole gig.

I have an attachment to the song ‘Animal’ because we (my hall band) performed it for the Hall Olympiad Opening Ceremony this year, and it was probably the most animated I’ve been while singing. I was jumping around and all. It was exhilarating. We only did the song another time at some “pyjamas party” at BluJaz Cafe. I miss those times especially now that I’m no longer staying in hall. Also, I gotta thank Jack&Rai for indirectly introducing the song to me. Q had to learn the song when he subbed for Joe once at Beer Market early this year, and we loaded up the YouTube video for it and watched it a few times.

I’ll just leave you with the video for the song since I didn’t take any photos last night. I did spot gig-photographer-extraordinaire Aloysius Lim in the crowd though. Looking forward to his pictures!

Filed under live in concert, looptacular, Music, now playing · Tagged with Animal, Fort Canning Park, Habits, My Chemical Romance, Neon Trees, The Killers, We Are Scientists