Live: The Feeling – Shepherds Bush Empire – 2nd November 2006
Source: theregoesthefear.com
Last night saw the first evening of The Feeling’s three night stand in London’s Shepherds Bush Empire, and the culmination of a year’s explosive growth for the typically British lads.
Opening for the evening was Luke Toms, a rather vibrant guy with an interesting support band that looks something like Napolean Dynamite wannabes. His (rather scary) ‘tash reminded us of a fair ground entertainer in the mid 1920’s, but on the whole were quite a melodic bunch, if a bunch of outcasts. They sounded quite similar to the Feeling, but a bit more extravagant, and had a hint of Magic Numbers around them. Could be one to watch next year!
Then a few minutes past nine the whole stage went dark and the intro tape kicked in, for The Feeling to bound on stage to “I want You Now”, and the crowd erupted. Dan Gillespie Sells was clearly on top form, and wouldn’t stop proclaiming his love for being back in London, after spending months touring the USA and Canada. He introduced us to his mum up on the balcony, who was having a very good time, giving most of us younger people a run for her money with her dancing and screaming skills.
They ripped through their set, going at breakneck speed through their album, playing Sewn very early and spacing the hits a nice distance apart. Strange was introduced by referring to the band as a bunch of oddballs, and was a great rendition. Before “Rose” Dan explained that “some people think this song is about confused sexuality, some people think this is a song about red wine… I’ll let you decide what it’s about”, which was quite amusing, and made us realise the several different interpretations of a song there might be. Throughout the set they were always polite, and very British: looking after the audience, following the corporate line: they almost seemed like a boyband, indeed much of what they did could be said to be very similar to McFly.
After Rose came a bit of a surprise: a cover of “Video killed the Radio star” by the Buggles, which was very camp but very enjoyable. “Fill my little world right up” took several attempts to get right for Dan, deciding that it was his guitar that didn’t sound right, before getting off to a stonking start, that could have closed the set. Instead, they played on and rounded off with “Love it when you call,” their new single. At first we thought that would be it, with no encore, but Dan crept round the front of the stage to come up, hidden from most of the audience’s sight and do the album closer “Blue Picadilly”, which was pretty awesome, and very melodic.
Overall they put on a very entertaining evening, though very corporate line-toeing, but good family friendly entertainment: their songs are ace, easy listening stuff, but aren’t going to be setting the world on fire with controversy or genius lyrics.
