Temper Trap + Delphic + Hundred In The Hands, House Of Blues, Boston

The Temper Trap’s star just keeps rising and rising. They’re at the point in their career where they have crazily devoted fans. Need proof? Girls came in droves from as far away as Dougy Mandagi’s native Indonesia to see them play at the venerated House of Blues in Beantown. Pretty impressive. Boston was the second date on the Melbourne band’s one-month campaign across North America.

Along for this tour are two bands, one probably not familiar to the average UK music head and the other very much so. Brooklyn electropop duo the Hundred in the Hands go first. They’ve just released their truly excellent, self-titled danceathon of an album on Warp Records, and live, the songs are every bit as engaging as they are on record. Jason Friedman’s guitar and electronic beats are the perfect foil to Eleanore Everdell’s sometimes tortured, sometimes emotional vocal delivery. ‘Last City’, with its driving melody and funky guitar, is a main highlight.

Their overall sound is improved from the first date of the tour in Philadelphia three days earlier. If Bat for Lashes was more dance, she’d probably sound like this. By the end, when Everdell announces they are about to start their last song, punters express real disappointment in the shortness of their set (only six songs). They are touring with !!! in October and November and you’d best see them live now while they are playing smallish venues.

7/10

It is somewhat distressing to see Delphic play second fiddle to the Temper Trap, knowing full well they’re capable of easily selling out venues in the UK as headliners on their own. But ‘Acolyte’ was released in America in June, so this tour is literally America’s first real live taste of the Mancunian trio. Lack of a soundcheck on the first night of the tour earlier in the week is rectified in Boston, and Delphic add the funky bass laden ‘Submission’ to their set list. But it’s when James Cook ushers ‘Red Lights’ into a seamless synth segue into ‘This Momentary’ that you sense something immediately: Delphic know exactly what they’re doing, and they do it well.

Unfortunately, the crowd reaction to their music is less animated than in Philadelphia, which is a real shame because the band are on their A game in Boston, twisting the dials on their synths and working their magic. Keyboardist Rick Boardman is upping the thrill factor these days, singing his backing vocals with even more zeal than in previous shows. Chalk this one up to Boston being too stiff?

7/10

By the time the Temper Trap take the stage, the floor is rammed. Finally. About time. ‘Fader’, their second song, garners the first big crowd reaction of the night, guitarist Lorenzo Sillitto introducing the song with those now-famous keyboard chords. This band does pop and rock equally well, which is done unsuccessfully by other bands more often than you might realise. It isn’t long before girls start showing signs of being overwhelmed by the Temper Trap live experience (or being in the presence of sex symbol Mandagi, possibly both). They look like they will faint at any moment. Or maybe they are so mesmerized by what they are seeing and hearing, they are unable to move.

Anyone else who can still move their bodies is jumping up and down for crowd-pleasers like ‘Down River’, with its singalong chorus. But it’s ‘Sweet Disposition’, not surprisingly, that elicits the loudest applause. Like it or not, they are going to be playing that song at every show for the rest of their career. And it should be a long one: if the Temper Trap can record an amazing sophomore album, the sky’s the limit. They really could be the next Muse.

9/10