Keane at Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone

4th June 2012

What a blistering night, both in terms of music and temperature!  Whilst I was recovering from a cold which had gripped me all bank holiday weekend, nothing was going to spoil this concert for me.  Support band Zulu Winter got the night off to a good start, some nice melodic tunes but maybe they need a little more polish and crowd interaction?  Still that’s what being a support act is all about I suppose…

Keane were welcomed on stage by the appreciative crowd and got going with two tracks from the new Strangeland album.

This was followed with plenty of old favourites to sing along to; ‘Leaving So Soon?‘ was a welcome addition, one of my favourites but seldom played live.Sadly, ‘Spiralling‘ had been substituted out since the De La Warr gig, and I fear I’ll never get to hear my favourite track off the new album live, since ‘Run With Me’ was a bonus on the special edition version.  My other new favourite ‘Myth’, was the B side to ‘Silenced By The Night’ so, again, may never be heard live.  Still, I can hope!

Tom’s voice was, as usual, faultless.

Expressive and strong one minute yet pierced with tenderness and emotion the next, his vocal has got to be one of the best around today.

Jesse, now a full-time member of Keane, delivered the throbbing bass-line whilst Richard (probably the most composed drummer I’ve ever seen!) added percussion. Although it’s easy to take a pedestrian amble through the Keane music catalogue, those who take a minute to really listen to the sentiment of the songs realise that unlike most music around today, there is storytelling and a depth of meaning to these contagiously hummable tunes.Take ‘Sovereign Light Cafe’ as an example; a song reminiscent of long summers spent on the seafront with an infectious “Isn’t it great to be British?” undertone that perfectly captures the zeitgeist of 2012.The night was perfectly topped off with an encore and old stalwart Crystal Ball, the ever popular sing-along for the crowds.  What a night…. roll on O2 announcement!