The Bravery + Switches + Your Vegas - Paradise Rock Club (Boston, MA; Feb. 18, 2008)

While still in college, I thought that, no matter what I did when I grew up, I wanted to be so good at it that women would feel compelled to throw their underwear onstage.  It just seemed like an excellent idea.  Basically, people would be showing you 1) that they think you’re fantastic; 2) that they think you’re boofable; and 3) that someone in that audience is already in a state of stealthily-advanced undress, for to accommodate (2).  Though this goal had been in remission for several years, tonight’s show at the Paradise cured me for good.

We’ve been blessed recently with rockingly good openers, and tonight was no exception.  Both bands, Your Vegas (Leeds, UK) and Switches (London), were high-energy, fantastic warm-ups for what promised to be an exciting headlining act.  And I’ve been excited for The Bravery since we learned about the show, having spent all summer listening to The Sun and the Moon.  Perhaps this is part of why I found their set to be so largely disappointing.

The Bravery mounted the Paradise stage already playing their guitars, wireless packs providing maximum freedom of movement.  The large monitors had been removed from the front of the stage, giving Sam (vocals, rhythm guitar), Michael (lead guitar, backing vocals) and Mike (bass, backing vocals) direct access to the audience (about whom: maybe BU doesn’t have classes Tuesday mornings?).  I certainly welcomed this interaction and think that, as showmen, The Bravery put on a lively performance.  However, when they started into the first number, “Split Me Wide Open,” I found myself wondering exactly how much polishing they’d done on the record to get Sam’s voice sounding as good as it does.  Perhaps he was just lazily warming up to the crowd because by the second song he was sounding significantly better.

Sam told us that, since last summer’s Boston show, The Bravery had written a whole new album.  Then, backtracking, he said, no, that’s not quite true.  They’ve actually done a sort of remix of some of their stuff.  Finally, the truth: the songs from The Sun and the Moon are being re-released on a new album, The Sun and the Moon Complete (according to the website; Sam just called it The Moon), but all the songs are overhauled.  They’ve changed up the songs, so they don’t really sound like the originals.  They’re covering themselves, and only a year after the initial material came out.  I can’t decide if they had to work hard to convince a label exec. that this was a good idea, or if re-recording two top-ten singles differently immediately seemed like a good and natural additional milking of a fairly successful cash cow.  They played us a couple of these new tunes, namely, “This is Not the End,” “The Ocean,” and “Tragedy Bound.” While “This is Not...” actually came out pretty well, the other two were all but ruined, sunk in their new arrangement.  A quicker tempo on “The Ocean” dressed the song in attractive angst and depression but robbed a beautiful piece of its tranquility, leaving no time to pause on any of the lyrics or sounds.  It moved too quickly to enjoy the tight, compelling harmonies which so well close the album.  The quicker tempo on “Tragedy Bound” similarly deflated a complex, ponderous piece, making it just sound like a lame Brit-pop knock-off.  Still, during the encore performance, someone felt compelled to hurl their bra at Sam, who, lucky for him, happened to be ducking at the exact right moment.

So, here’s my problem with the underwear fantasy, as demonstrated by the Bravery show: one might hope that you’d end up with [insert your favorite fabrics and flowery or erotic underwear description, if you must], but what’s thrown at you is actually a grimy, über-padded dull blue thing, suggesting that what looked and was expected to be one thing (substantial? over 18?) actually lacked the expected, yearned-for substance.

But the show wasn’t all disappointing, really.  I’m actually probably being overly down on the performance, which was exciting and energetic and playful.  The Bravery has a well-practiced but still spontaneous air about them; they may well be creating music out of whole cloth just in front of you, and I’m pretty sure that no one sees the same show twice.  Their transitions and instrument-trades are slick and quick, just simple state-of-the-game moments with a minimum of futzing with straps and cables before joyfully jumping into the next piece of their set.  And The Bravery really do write incredibly catchy, fun music.  They are fully able to perform live, losing little of their excellent studio sound, the pieces thickly orchestrated among the five members (John and Anthony fill out the crew on keyboards and drums, respectively).

Again, check out the openers:

Your Vegas, Leeds, UK - EP available now on iTunes, with a full-length album due out in the US on April 22. (official, but under development) / (myspace)

Switches, London, UK (official) / (myspace)

SET LIST
Split Me Wide Open
No Brakes
PSA
Not The End (Moon)
Tyrant
Believe
“Dandy”
Time
Knife
Ocean (Moon)
Honest
Swollen

Encore
Fearless
Tragedy Bound (Moon)
Unconditional

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