Temples: Show Review

Temples played a show at the beautiful, brand new Teragram Ballroom on October 13th. They graced the stage with their all black outfits and disheveled haircuts swooning the crowd over immediately. No one could resist, not even the dads in the crowd. Speaking of dads, there were at least five standing next to me, including my own.  I couldn’t help but wonder if these dads were trying to relieve their life in the 60’s through a band that so closely sounds like The Beatles.  One of the dads was wearing a Beach Goth 2015 shirt and I even overheard him discussing the time he saw The Strokes in 2001. Another dad was front row holding his Samsung Galaxy S proudly while snapping pics.  My dad even got to the show an hour before me just so that he could be front row. I couldn’t compete with the love these dads had for Temples. This crowd knew what was up.  

Temples opened with “Colors to Life” and within the first few guitar chords the crowd was teetering back and forth waiting to release all their energy. When the chorus finally hit, the whole crowd, dads included, started jumping up and down waving their hair as if they had the same flow and volume as lead singer, James Edward Bagshaw.  For once in my life I was thankful to have curly, unruly hair that I could flip around like Bagshaw. Temples carried on the show with new tracks such as “Certainty” off of their untitled upcoming album.  For being a brand new song, they played “Certainty” with great confidence and perfect precision as if they had been playing it for years. The crowd went nuts for the new songs and so did I. My body was absorbed by the beats and the guitar’s vibrato. Bagshaw said something along the lines of “I know you guys don’t know these new songs but just listen to the beats and lets all dance together”, and everyone certainly did. 

In an unexpected move, Temples played their biggest hit “Shelter Song” as their third to last song. I definitely thought it would have been an encore song, but honestly I’m glad it wasn’t.  Rather than play “Shelter Song” during their encore, Temples played “A Question Isn’t Answered” followed by “Sand Dance”. Songs I believe strongly outweigh “Shelter Song” in terms of power. Both songs offer raw, heavy, and pure instrumentation segments, which within those segments, Temples played with all their might causing the Teragram to feel like my Honda Civic when I am driving with the bass too loud.  By the end of their encore they had the crowd chanting for more, but unfortunately there just weren’t any more songs to play. 

All in all, Temples put on a fantastic show and they have certainly improved in terms of performance since the last time I saw them in April, 2014. Crowd rocked, band rocked, and venue rocked.