Temper Trap at OSLO

I have been on a good run of gigs lately. Temples at the Garage was brilliant. This was a chance to see another astonishingly fine band at a ridiculously small venue, OSLO. Indeed I had never come across the place before, partly because it is new, partly its far too small for most of the bands I want to see, and partly because its in Hackney which is far too cool for me. Indeed only because I have friends living in a very cool flat round the corner do I ever venture there. I feel my friends only invite me over as I make some ironic statement by being ultra untrendy in a ultra trendy area.

Indeed we started off with dinner - a Vietnamese takeaway - on their spacious balcony with the warm setting sun behind us - a fabulously warm Mediterranean style evening, for which London is not exactly noted. Their balcony offers splendid views of both the City and Canary Wharf. Could almost match Hong Kong, were it not for Victoria Harbour being replaced by the multiple tracks of London Fields Station right below us.

OSLO is in a Victorian building with a bar/restaurant below and the club above. Its a not particularly large restaurant, which gives you an idea how small the venue upstairs is since obviously it shares the same footprint. We eschewed the support act for a drink at the bar  - well outside it given how warm the evening was, and the fact that there appeared to be a game of bingo going on, the numbers being called in a strong French accent. Bizarre.

As for Temper Trap, well they were imperious. Apart from a rather odd intro choice of an instrumental rock number - odd when by far your strongest suit is your lead singer's voice, not his guitar. But we were soon into Trembling Hands, the best song off their second album. Danny Mandagi just has the most sublime voice. It is truly stunningly brilliant. One is used to blokes singing falsetto. But this is none of your Bee Gees screeching. This is strong perfect pitch vocal throughout, with no straining. One thing that also became evident from listening to this act from about 10 feet away was that the support vocals are really good too, a fact easily missed by being blown away by Danny's voice. They played a few new songs too, with a third album to come which I will of course purchase on release.

And I always admire a band for inserting some interesting twist into their repertoire, if even just to show off that they can do it. Tonight it was inserting the old Clash song,  "Rock the Casbah" into the middle of their instrumental piece "Drum Song" (which as the title suggests is heavily based on drum beats, Danny forgoing the vocals to band away at the drum introduced centre stage). Unsurprisingly they finished their encore with Sweet Disposition, their breakthrough hit.

Anyway, terrific night. And right next to Hackney Central station. We pegged it over to the next platform for the incoming train. My trainee made it; I did  not. "I thought you were just behind me" he texted sheepishly from the comfort of his moving train. Yeah, but I'm twice his age and half his height! Ah well, it was a pleasant enough evening to spend 15 minutes on a platform with Sweet Disposition running through my head.