Review: The Script at The O2 – March 10th 2011
Review: Ros Madigan
Photos: Sean Smyth
The joys of gig reviewing are such that opportunities tend to crop up where you are asked to review gigs at late notice. On what otherwise was a very mundane, wet and miserable Thursday afternoon. The question was landed if I would like to go see The Script on what was to be their homecoming and biggest headline gig to date at The O2, Dublin. While The Script wouldn’t be the first band into my tape deck, I realize and understand the journey these Irish lads have been on since their first EP release in 2005. Their meteoric rise to the top is a massive achievement and something to be proud of as a fellow Dublin native. Another fact that ran around my head while thinking of attending was that on October the 1st, the tickets for this shows three night stint at The O2, two nights at The Odyssey(Belfast) and two nights at the INEC(Killarney) sold out in a mind boggling 40 minutes, selling 60,000 tickets. So maybe I was lucky to get the chance to attend, maybe it was the start of something massive? I was about to find out.
Ryan Sheridan was the support act on the night and having missed Ryan play around Dublin a few times of late, I was looking forward to catching him. This was a different ball game for Ryan who only recently played Whelans, with a capacity of roughly 400 people, stepping onto the O2 stage in front of 16,000 screaming girls. I was worried that he might get swallowed up by the vast nature of the O2 surroundings, but after his first song “Standing Tall”, I need not have worried. Ryan came out with a gushing enthusiasm that you could not but help and get sucked into. His up-tempo style was proving a hit as he played a few tracks off his eagerly anticipated album “The Day You Live Forever”. A crowd favourite on the night was a cover of Mumford & Sons “Lion Man”. It was a refreshing and brilliant version of the chart classic. “The Dreamer”, his latest single was received very well but the definite highlight of his set was his hit single “Jigsaw”. Jigsaw has received massive airplay on radio stations across Ireland and the crowd were obviously tuned in as they sang along. He left and the crowd reacted. A great support and I can’t wait to see more of this man on the festival scene.
The stage show was an elaborate one with a huge light structure involved, massive LED screens and seemingly pointless ramps littering the stage. The band came to the stage a little later than planned and opened with “You Won’t Feel A Thing”. It quickly became apparent that this show was not going to be your normal, run of the mill concert. It was destined to be a fully-fledged lighting and staged extravaganza. From the very get go, the crowd was engulfed in a massive light show. Epilepsy was now a fear.
Their first ever single, “We Cry”, was the third song on the night and was the first foray into the urban/rap sound The Script became famous for back in 2008. Danny O’Donoghue, the bands front man, sporting a rather suspicious looking mullet, played and toyed with the crowd from the offset. He dived into the pit, pleasing the front row fans; some of who told me had queued from 2 o’clock that day. We then got our first glimpse into Danny’s vocal ability as he played an old wooden piano to the side of the glitz and glamour stage. “Before The Worst” was the song and this showed his vocal strength.
“If You See Kay” was next and provided all the teen kids in the audience the great opportunity to spell out a word not usually allowed by their parents while sitting next to them. The tempo drove this song from start to finish as Danny toyed and played with the audience once more. Danny even used the camera’s that were then shown on 3 massive LED screens in order to communicate with the crowd. This song showed the bands ability to convey a story from start to finish and took the crowd on a little journey.
The next song “Science and Faith”, from the new album of the same name was to be the theatrical highlight of the night. It became quickly apparent from the offset that this concert was being recorded for the purposes of a live DVD. It was more a west-end production than a Dublin gig. The lights went down, the band left the stage while the LED screens showed images of earth. A huge steel sculpture then dropped from the rafters of the O2. The sculpture was the same symbol that covers their new album sleeve. The LED show and light show on this particular track were out of this world. The rest of the band finally utilize their man made ramps at the rear of the stage for reasons they could only tell you. This is all well and good but every movement looks rehearsed as if choreographed before hand for the DVD release. I could only imagine going to the gig the next two nights in The O2 and seeing precisely the same show, move for move, gimmick for gimmick.
“The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” was limited on effects and lights and was received far better and went down a treat for the Dublin crowd. The crowd went mad as the other band members left the stage and left Danny to revel in the crowds adoration. The roadies flooded the stage to set up a sitting room scene to the right of the stage, which supposedly mimicked “where it all began, their sitting room”. Danny started to become “emotional” as the cheers came flooding in. It did seem rather suspicious that he was only emotional for the amount of time it took the roadies set up the few couches and lamp. Maybe I’m just a cynic. I heard one punter afterwards remark, “It was nice to see them cut back on the theatrics for a few songs”, this punter in question had obviously missed the fact that the sitting room was one massive theatric. How and ever, the few tracks they performed acoustically proved that these lads do have the talent underlying their massive stage show.
“Rusty Halo” was my favourite tune of the night with its up tempo rock beat. This song was followed by everyone else’s favourite song of the night “For The First Time”. It was to be the most euphoric song of the night as everyone, mother, daughter, son and disgruntled father sing along. Danny once more gets emotional. Those DVD’s better sell or the faux tears will be in vain.
The encore begins with the drummer alone on stage drumming on a snare as if he were in an American college-drumming band. Danny then joins as he bashes on a huge tribal Chinese drum. This was to be the lead into “This = Love”. For all the build up into this song, it proves as anti-climax as the song comes and goes with hardly any reaction. This was to be highly contrasted with the next and final song, “Break Even”. The perfect song to end with as Danny hardly needs to sing as the crowd recites back every single word of the song. The best choice no doubt for the final song as the band finally take to the front of the stage to thank the crowd.
In the end, the concert was not exactly what I had expected. I was expecting to spend a night criticizing the inadequacies of the band and front man. This was not to be the case as the band proved their talents and put on an amazing spectacle of a performance. I suppose I am not really used to such a grand scale of a concert. It was something different and different is always good in my book. The bands insistence on paying more attention to the TV cameras and selling DVD’s would have had me going insane, if I was a big Script fan. I was fully expecting to come away dissatisfied and bemoaning every facet of the performance. A friend of mine summed it up for me when he asked, “Enough of the bad points, did you enjoy it?”. I thought for a second, looked at him and smiled and said “Actually, I think I did”.
