Institute of Contemporary Arts

DAY THREE: Travis and The Hoosiers

Date: 3 July 2007

FrancisHealy, Travis

Yes, amazing. And yes, true. If you were a winner of a lottery ticket to last night’s ITunes festival, you got to see the Scottish indie giants Travis play in the cosy quarters of the ICA with just 250 or so other folk, for free. Priceless indeed. Add to this 'basic' prize a host of bonuses including a superb support band, guitar acrobatics, acoustic songs and all sorts else, well I can promise you, the winners were feeling rather smug by the end of it..

The Hoosiers started everything off and performed a sprightly and vivacious set. Appearing unintimidated by the  presence of the Channel Four video cameras filming for At It TV, Irwin and his band played with full confidence and charm. Their set included several neat, catchy songs including newly released singles, Worried About Ray, Worst Case Scenario and Goodbye Mr. A. The band brought with them all sorts of extras to make this gig a special one. Amps were dressed up as monsters, hairy TV sets filled the stage, t-shirts were thrown out into the crowd (‘we spent all our earnings on these’ joked Irwin) and the foxy new keyboardist Jen gave their debut ICA performance that extra va va voom.. If you like quirky animated characters and the sound of 50s throwback pop with an indie twist, then I’m sorry you missed last night; The Hoosiers did a sterling job.

Next up Travis, providing what can only be described as a wonderfully exclusive set. Fran was in good mood, bigging up iTunes and the festival, so much so in fact that he started to mimic himself as a walking advert for the company! The band were clearly enjoying the playful intimate pastures of the ICA, and took a moment to welcome their Swedish keyboardist Claus in an amusing fashion. Fran asked the audience to shout out his name, ‘like angry Vikings that have just had your dried fish stolen’ during Good Feeling. The resulting vision of audience and band yelling ‘Claus!’ ‘Claus!’ over the top of the keyboard solo, well this was something you just don’t see every day of the week. Following this the audience enjoyed beautiful renditions of classics like Driftwood and Sing, alongside newer tracks Closer and Selfish Jean. Fran shared some personal feelings about fatherhood before singing My Eyes from the new album and the audience were hooked. I don’t think anybody was expecting it when Andy Dunlop climbed up onto the speakers and grabbed onto the lighting rail towards the end of the set. This spectacle could only have been topped by what was the magical encore of Flowers In the Window. Taking everything electric out of the equation, Fran led the band in an acoustic version of the song that required silence for everyone to hear. It was an electric, non-electric moment if that makes sense, reaching its climax during the chorus, when people couldn’t help themselves but to sing along unprompted.

What a perfect evening, and all wrapped up with Why Does It always Rain On Me. This was the perfect song for what was sadly, one of the wettest July days in years. Not that I minded, I was safe inside taking pictures of band members and ogling celebrity girlfriends…

O.K, maybe an unnecessary point, but I couldn’t leave you with the British weather could I? That would just be too depressing.

Torie Speyer