TRAVIS

Two Sunday nights ago, Bevin and I went to see Travis. No, we didn't go see Travis Tritt, the country music star who is native to these parts. Seems like every time I mention Travis, people get a confused look, because they could have sworn I didn’t like country music.

Travis is a band from Scotland with a very thoughtful alterna-brit-rock sound. A little Radiohead, slightly Coldplay (with better lyrics), and yet not like either of those bands at all. I own two of their CDs: The Man Who, and The Invisible Band, and they're both delightfully mellow and slightly depressing. So when we went to the concert, I was completely expecting to leave feeling very serious and heavy.

Boy was I surprised. They were all sorts of rockin' fun instead. I liked their songs better performed live than I do listening to the CDs, which I think is saying something. Most bands struggle to sound as good as their over-produced albums. After seeing Travis, I realized their problem was replicating on their albums the energy and sound of their live performance. It was one of the best rock concerts I've seen. Definitely better than Coldplay.

Plus, they were just plain fun. During their encore, they did their own rendition of Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time”. It was hilarious. And their very last song? A rockin’ cover of AC/DC’s “Back in Black”. AWESOME.

Oh, and I really liked the Tabernacle as a venue. I've only been there once before, in my single days, to see Avril Lavigne, an "artist" I would not have voluntarily chosen to see if I had not been asked to go to her concert by a boy I liked. The things we'll do for the opposite sex. I also confess to seeing Metallica in concert just because a boy asked me to go.

Anyway, I did not like the Tabernacle when I went there for the Avril concert. We were in the "standing room only" section on the main floor, and it was too crowded, and we were stuck at the back, near the bar and all the annoying drunk people. I swore I would never go to the Tabernacle again. But I really really wanted to see Travis, and Bevin said they had reserved seats available. I didn't know they had reserved seating at all, but what do you know! There's a balcony at the Tab! Two of them actually. So we had GREAT seats and didn't have to deal with the masses at all!

Below are a couple of videos. One is a snippet of their song “Sing”, and the other is the aforementioned song by Ms. Spears.