A sold out gig at The Forum Theatre represented The Temper Trap’s official (their secret show at the Corner Hotel shouldn’t count) return to Melbourne. The bar had been raised considerably high over the last year. A new album, Conditions that peaked at number 9 on the charts, A song included in indie film 500 Days of Summer and ridiculous amounts of radio airplay. Something has gone right for the Melbourne Boys.

Opening was UK band (and friends of The Temper Trap) Boxer Rebellion. Facing a crowd eager to hear from the headline The Boxer Rebellion did a respectable job and played an impressive set of ambient, pounding, epic rock. Sounding like a heavier version of Interpol, The Boxer Rebellion has a lot going for it, vocalist Nathan Nicholson’s soaring vocals complemented perfectly with Todd Howe’s effect laden guitar and Adam Harrison’s bass. The standout however was drummer Piers Hewitt – his exceedingly impressive drumming kept the pace for each song and proved pivotal in making an impression on the crowd.

Song titles such as Semi-Automatic, Forces and We Have This Place Surrounded along with lyrics such as “dark forces are everywhere, they won’t stop. They won’t stop – œtil you’re here” kept the heavy theme alive and along with the stomping beat of Hewitt’s drums made The Boxer Rebellion a band to look out for when you need a fix of epic-ness.

Playing a set consisting of every track off their debut album, along with a couple of extras, The Temper Trap were clearly playing to new fans (the fact that not a single song was played from their original self titled EP did not go unnoticed), but to the full capacity of The Forum, this didn’t seem to bother most of the crowd.

While being their usual impressive selves The Temper Trap come across as a band completely in synch. They play well and they interact well with each other on stage – The problem is that’s all they seemed to be, rather than separating themselves from other bands The Temper Trap just performed well. They came out, played their songs and well that was it really.

As a band they’re very impressive, they write excellent songs, which are recognisable and interesting. Down River stood out as an early highlight with the single strums and thumping drums instantly getting a reaction from the crowd, Rest and Fools really allowed singer Dougy Mandagi to show off his impressive falsetto, and (predictably) Sweet Disposition received the loudest cheer and sing along of the night.

Resurrection, with its slow build up and high vocals leading into the epically, heavy western-esque feel of its climax and combined with Drum Song (which followed with no break) really allowed the band to let loose and show what they were capable of and along with the lights (more on that soon) easily provided the highlight of the night. A strange choice was the cover of Bruce Springsteen’s song Dancing in the Dark – not that it was done badly, it was just a cover. There was nothing really special about it and it simply was out of place in comparison with the bands other songs.

Whilst the band put on a good show, their lighting designer put on an incredible show. Definitely earning their pay check, the lights were absolutely astounding. Free standing and hanging light towers, flood lights and colour changing roaming spot lights were perfectly in synch with the music, never looked anything less than absolutely professional and added another layer to the songs to create an amazing atmosphere for the band and audience.

When it was all over (rather sooner than expected one must add – 45 minutes isn’t a very long time for a headline band to play for), The Temper Trap left with their reputation easily intact, putting on a good show, made great by the lights and the reception of the audience.

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE GIG HERE