We’ve all heard the iTunes commercial [link] with The Ting Tings. I remember checking the song out then, and not being compelled to purchase anything or check further into the group. But once there was an NPR story about them, my wife started getting more into them, and then their music got into my head… In a good way.
So she checked into whether they were touring, and sure enough they had some US dates coming up. Not Indy, because we don’t get much in the way of concerts compared to many other municipalities. The Chicago show sold out quickly, but there was a show in St. Louis that was pretty affordable for a concert. So we decided to try and catch the show. Things fell in line, and we were able to go.
The venue was The Pageant, which is a very cool venue that seems somewhere in-between the sizes of The Riveria (Chicago) and Newport (Columbus, OH). The sound quality seemed to be very good…
The opening act was HotTub, which pretty much was not my favorite thing. Some good beats and use of rhythm, but it was a wannabe MIA rap act that’s more annoying then they are talented. But they have a MySpace page with 4800 friends…
The Ting Tings came on, and delivered. They only have the one album with 10 songs, and I think they played all their songs – so everyone was pretty happy to get their favorites played. There were little changes to the songs that the crowd loved that also played to the musical ability of the group. I was particularly impressed by the talent of Jules De Martino.
The disapointing part of the show was that there was either a backstage musician, or a sequencer working overtime during most of the show. I think the addition of a single, multi-talented, stage musician would have added a better sound quality. Don’t get me wrong, the performance quality was great, but it could have been a little better.
The Ting Tings are a young act, so we’ll see what they can follow this up with. If their next album is good, then I’d expect their live show to continue to be a good time.