Chronicle written by Arianna Choy – Kifox
After being two and a half hours stuck in the traffic and driving my dad crazy, messaging him every ten minutes asking if they were gonna let the press in, even after the concerts started, I finally arrived at Arena 1 and waited in line for the PR to arrive and let me in with the rest of the accredited press. While giving the bracelets to the press, he informed us that the concert was going to start some minutes late, so we were arriving on time. Keane was in Lima, Peru, for the third time thanks to Move Concerts Peru and it was a sold-out show.
The Arena 1 was divided into two zones: Camp A and Camp B. Sadly I wasn’t able to get into the pit with the rest of the photographers, just able to walk around the field, so I went through the Camp A doors. It was a sold-out show. Earlier that day, the producers enabled more tickets on the website and it went sold out, again, so when I got into the Arena, it was already full of people and more were still coming. Most of the audience were people between their 30’s and 40’s, with a couple of exceptions, like some kids, who probably inherited their taste of music from their parents. I stood at the left side of the stage, where surprisingly it wasn’t so crowded (yet), and waited but it only took a couple of minutes for the space behind me to get so full that you couldn’t see the back of the zone. The stage was big enough for the place, so the people in the last row of the field could actually see without any problem. At the back of it, as the background, was a drawing colored in sepia of buildings and the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral of London.
The band in charge of opening the night was Reyna Tropical, a Mexican-American musical project founded by the guitarist, singer, composer, and producer Fabiola Reyna. With their mix of Colombian and tropical sounds, influenced by Latin American folklore, the band warmed up the audience with their unique music and transported them to another dimension with their organic sounds, going from their first EPs to some singles and songs from their debut album Malegria which came out earlier this year.
Band:
Fabiola Reyna – Vocals, Guitar
Setlist:
1. Intro
2. Suavecito
3. Lluvia
4. Niña
5. La Madrugada
6. Cartagena
7. Puerto Rico
8. Dolor
9. No me quieres
After Reyna Tropical, 40 minutes passed and the lights went down, the stage was painted with red lights and white flashes coming from the sides. The crowd got excited as an instrumental mix with some singing parts of different songs of Keane started to play from the speakers as an intro for the show. The flashes stopped, the lights went on and the singer Tom Chaplin came on stage, waving the Peruvian flag in his hand, followed by the drummer Richard Hughes, the keyboard player Tim Rice-Oxley and the bassist Jesse Quin, all of them waving hands to the crowd while some fans from the first row were throwing white and red balloons to the air. Tom knotted the flag to the stand of his microphone and it stood there for the whole night. He didn’t stop playing and dragging it around until the end when a lucky fan in the crowd caught it when he threw it at them. He raised his hand above him and the drums of “Can’t Stop Now” announced the beginning of an unforgettable night.
Even though Hughes had an interview with a local radio station, expressing his excitement for coming back here for their third time and how special this show was because it would be the biggest one of the whole tour, with the biggest crowd (and he wasn’t wrong), it really was an intimate concert. The connection that the band and the fans had during the almost 2 hours and 20 minutes of show, was unbelievable and really emotional. Maybe it was because most of their fans spent their youth days listening to their music and this night was a trip back to that nostalgia, celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album Hopes and Fears and the soundtrack of the teenage years of thousands of people in the crowd, adding the fact that there wasn’t any digital graphics surrounding the band or distracting the crowd from the artist and the music, or maybe it was because you can clearly see all of the members on the stage, which is not that common. Something I really liked was that the band wasn’t scattered in the corners and sides of the stage, they were all together in the middle, which let you see every member of the band, even Richard at the drums, and every single one of them could see and interact with the crowd. I don’t know if it’s a European musician’s generational thing, ‘cause the same happened with Franz Ferdinand when they did their concert here in Peru a couple of weeks ago, but I think more bands should follow that same stage arrangement, more fans would be happier and would be easier for the photographers to take photos of each musician.
The night was followed by hit after hit. Not only did they play almost all their songs from Hopes and Fears (with the exception of “On a Day Like Today” and “Untitled 1″) but they also played some from Under the Iron Sea like “Nothing in My Way”, “A bad dream”, and “Is it any wonder?”; others from Strangeland like “Disconnected”, “Day will come”, “Silenced by the Night” and “Perfect Symmetry” from the album with the same title. They lift up the energy of the audience and make them scream and dance with their songs “The Way I Feel”, “Crystal Ball” and “Sovereign Light Café”. For the ballad “Hamburg Song”, they got a second keyboard on stage for Tom to play along with Tim.
At the beginning of every song that was played, the crowd’s response was always the same amount of excitement. Everyone knew the lyrics of all the songs and Arena 1 was wrapped up with only two voices singing altogether: Tom and all the Peruvians. “I’m so happy to be back here and playing among you, the good people from Peru, there’s a lot of love here.” were the first words that Tom said to open the show and it was true. You could actually feel the happiness pouring through each member on the stage and Tom was really good at expressing it through the whole concert. He couldn’t stop from moving around the stage all the time, dancing, passing beside the rest of the members and going to each corner of the edge of the stage to get closer to the fans. There wasn’t any catwalk, so everybody saw the band at the same level. He also took every chance he had to interact with the crowd and made them follow his lead with wows and a scale of oh’s in the middle of the songs like “Spiralling” and “You are Young”. Maybe it was because it was their 3rd time playing here in Peru but Tom had some Spanish words and phrases learned up his sleeve, which is something that as a Spanish country we really like when our favorite artist has an interest in learning our language. He said phrases like “Es increíble”, “Aplaude, baila, canta con nosotros” (clap, dance and sing with us), “We are finally here in Peru to say Feliz cumpleaños a Hopes and Fears” and my personal favorite: “La comida es increíble, los fans son increíble, el tráfico es terrible” (The food is awesome, the fans are awesome, the traffic is horrible). I knew that Tom knew about the traffic prior to the concert, and that’s why they delayed the start of the concert and waited for me and more fans to arrive. How thoughtful.
For the encore, I realized that they tend to change some of their songs at the beginning for each country. In this case, they started with “Atlantic”, followed by “Neon River”. The surprise of the night for me was the cover of “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie, which was one of the best covers I have ever heard of a song because the voice of Tom fit perfectly for it and the band played it really well as well. While doing this review I found out that they actually recorded that cover in their The Night Sky album, so you can listen to this amazing cover. The encore was completed with “We might as well be strangers”, and “Sovereign Light Cafe” and ended with one of their most acclaimed songs and the third single of their celebrated album “Bedshaped”.
I would lie if I said that I’ve been a fan of Keane for years but after this concert, I’m kind of angry at the fact that I haven’t been following them that much and didn’t go to the first two concerts that they did here. I only knew the songs of their first album, which happily was the album they were celebrating for this tour, so I really got to enjoy the whole concert and also knew some songs from the rest of their following albums but it was definitely one of the best concerts I ever witnessed. The energy of the band, the talent of the members, and the incredible voice of Tom demonstrated the artistry level that Keane had given to their audience in the more than 20 years that they had as a band. For the closure of the night, they announced that they would get back into the studio soon, to work on a new record and promised to come back here for their next tour in a couple of years, so as far as I’m concerned, the only thing left to do is wait for their new music and their comeback to our Peruvian stage.
Band:
Tom Chaplin – Vocals
Tim Rice-Oxley – Piano, Keyboards
Jesse Quin -Bass
Richard Hughes – Drums
I’m a photographer with extensive experience working for national and international media. I’m also a passionate photography educator with extensive experience working with students of different ages. I love Heavy Metal music and I began shooting concerts in 1992. Concert Photography is my passion. I’m based in Perú but willing to travel anywhere.
