The Script, 9:30 Club, Washington DC
There's a massive queue outside the 9:30 Club on this chilly Tuesday night...
The massive queue outside the 9:30 Club on a chilly Tuesday night should have been the first clue to passersby that something big was happening at DC's biggest club that evening. The Script were playing a sold-out show at the venue rated Top Club at this year's 2010 Billboard Touring Awards. Although the Dublin trio have been a pop phenomenon at home and in the UK since 2008 and handily selling out stadiums, it has been only recently that American took a shine to the band.
To thunderous applause, the trio appeared onstage one by one under cover of darkness and then an eerie blue light before launching into 'You Won't Feel a Thing', the opening track from the band's #1 charting sophomore album released in September, 'Science & Faith'. Lead singer / keyboardist Danny O'Donoghue, in t-shirt and ripped jeans, looked suitably street for the band's songs that run more soulful r&b, like the band's debut single 'We Cry' (introduced by O'Donoghue as "the first song we ever wrote", leading to audience awww-ing and sighing) and 'If You See Kay'. Beyond the r&b flavoured tracks is the Script's more mainstream pop sound, which undoubtedly brought parents and their young children to the show; obviously those fans were more familiar with tunes like 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved', which has become a staple on American light rock radio stations and on America's VH1 music telly channel. O'Donoghue teases the crowd and with guitarist Mark Sheehan's agreement, he plays the chords of 'The Man...' on his keyboard and gets punters to cheer appreciatively for the song to come.
When O'Donoghue is not tied down playing his keys (a very gorgeous Roland setup, complete with its own light show on its front side), he is vogueing across the stage or, to the simultaneous squealing delight of the Script's female fans and the worry of the 9:30 Club's security, hanging his body over the barrier to get some of the crowd to sing along with him. Sheehan is at the ready with jokey banter between songs. Before the song 'Nothing' (another song from 'Science & Faith'), he quips, "the only difference between America and Ireland is that we drink a bit more." Widespread laughter. He then continues to explain that the two countries are the same because in both places, if you have a friend with a broken heart, you take it upon yourself to bring the said friend out and get him/her completely pissed.
But if there is one song to remember from the night, it would have to be the show's closer and the Script's megahit 'Breakeven'. O'Donoghue asks, "are you ready for a singalong?" Is he kidding? The crowd is eager to join in on the song with a message that everyone can relate to: when a heart breaks, no, it don't break even. But this night, the club wasn't filled with broken hearts but more like hearts having been warmed by the music of the Script.
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