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Someone you know and love loves Travis. It could be your neighbor, your colleague, even a sibling. Odds are good you would never know unless you happened to be at the House of Blues to see the Scottish band close out its latest tour on Sunday night.
Travis has never reached the buzz band status of fellow UK imports. The band seemed to share a plane with Radiohead and Coldplay when it crossed the pond to make its American debut in the mid-'90s; with the exception of several pop culture references (Jim played "Sing" for Pam on an episode of The Office), Travis seemed to be the odd band out. A casual observer would chalk Travis up as a great sing-song Britpop band which fell victim to unfortunate timing.
You needn't feel badly for the four men of Travis - Fran Healy, Dougie Payne, Andy Dunlop and Neil Primrose - any longer. They are clearly doing just fine, thank you very much, drawing a hearty crowd to the Lansdowne Street venue on a night when the Red Sox were busy sweeping the Yankees just across the street. With a boisterous set that defied the band's soft and sensitive rep, the band celebrated the end of their latest tour with a surprisingly large and passionate crowd. It was the kind of interactive concert experience you just know Chris Martin dreams about from time to time.
Photo by Flickr user timsnell, used under terms of Creative Commons License
Looking over a crowd of fist-pumping, arms-waving fans, the hat-clad frontman Healy remarked that if the band and its fans took over an island somewhere, they would be able to make an honest go at a Utopian society. When it comes to Travis fans, "there's one of every kind." The man is onto something, as college students stood next to those who clearly hired a sitter to watch the kids for the night and others with salt-and-pepper hair. Skinny jeans and Dockers, guyliner and polos.
The band's universal appeal lies largely in the fact that it is too gosh darn likable to resist; it is an approach that has worked in its own way largely since The Man Who dropped in 2000. In this Britpop class, Radiohead were the art kids who intrigued you despite the fact that you couldn't figure them out, Coldplay consisted of the brooding poets and Travis were the guys who chatted up the girls and wrote them cute little love poems. Bittersweet love songs, starting with "Why Does It Always Rain On Me" and continuing through "Something Anything," continue to help the band endear itself to an audience.
Sunday's set, however, demonstrated that what might sound soft in the studio can rock on stage. "Selfish Jean" offered up a big band percussive vibe, while "All I Want To Do Is Rock" conveyed a sense of playfulness easily confused for frivolty when listening to it through earbuds. The band deftly segued from 2001's The Invisible Band to 2007's The Boy With No Name by teasing the latter's "Eyes Wide Open" during the former's "Side." Come "Why Does It Always Rain On Me," the band managed to get the crowd to pogo up and down in time to the final chorus.
When not jumping onto the drum kit or into the crowd, where he slow danced with a patron, Healy was a bundle of chatter until he was distracted by patrons in the center of the crowd. We don't know what was said in the direction of the stage, but Healy's mood quickly turned from one of puckish enthusiasm to anger. The frontman only returned to the stage to begin what became a three-song encore until venue security made its way through the crowd to remove the offenders - to an approving roar of the crowd.
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i kind of wonder if travis would've become coldplay if one of them had married gwyneth paltrow.
I was at this show. Great set. I knew a bunch of their songs, but not all the ones they played. When I left, I was so much more into the band--they sound better than they do on their albums, and you can tell they like each other and respect their fans. Refreshing.