The Pop Culture Addict’s Blog

EDIT: I didn’t take note of the set list but a fan or fans put up set lists for this tour on the Keane wiki for the Under the Iron Sea Tour:

Keane’s set list on this tour changes constantly. Additionally, “The Frog Prince” is often omitted.

1. “The Iron Sea“
2. “Atlantic“
3. “Put It Behind You“
4. “Everybody’s Changing“
5. “Bend and Break“
6. “The Frog Prince“
7. “Nothing in My Way“
8. “A Bad Dream“
9. “This Is the Last Time“
10. “Hamburg Song“
11. “Somewhere Only We Know“
12. “Is It Any Wonder?“
13. “Try Again“
14. “Leaving So Soon?“
15. “Bedshaped“
16. “Crystal Ball“

New Set List

1. “The Iron Sea“
2. “Put It Behind You“
3. “Everybody’s Changing“
4. “Leaving So Soon?“
5. “We Might as Well Be Strangers“
6. “Nothing in My Way“
7. “Bend and Break“
8. “Try Again“
9. “Your Eyes Open“
10. “Hamburg Song“
11. “Can’t Stop Now“
12. “The Frog Prince“
13. “A Bad Dream“
14. “This Is the Last Time“
15. “Broken toy”
16. “Somewhere Only We Know“
17. “Is It Any Wonder?“
18. “Atlantic“
19. “Crystal Ball“
20. “Bedshaped“

Just a quick note to say Keane at Rumsey Playfield (aka Summerstage) in Central Park tonight was a fantastic, amazingly fabulous show! Yes, it was hard on the feet. Yes, I had limited visibility due to the throngs of people in the audience. But I caught glimpses of the band here and there and it was cool to be surrounded by fellow Keane fans. Those guys are all such talented and entertaining musicians. I love Tom Chaplin’s voice. It totally carried in the night air. He was so genuine. He was very open about “the dark days” last year when they thought the band might break up and they had to cancel their tour. He said Try Again helped him through that. Also, they were all fans of Simon and Garfunkel’s Concert in Central Park album. So he sang An American Tune in tribute to them. Very lovely. I love all of them. Richard Hughes always looks so soulful playing the drums and of course Tim Rice-Oxley is the man who can do it all. They played one song with Tom on the guitar and it was sort of odd. Pleasant but odd. It made me realize how accustomed to Tim’s piano they’ve made us. It was great to be outside, in the park on a balmy night. My fellow PCA said it was unusual how much the audience was encouraged to sing along. And boy was it satisfying to do so. I’m not good with lyrics but I sang Everybody’s Changing and Somewhere Only We Know. Oh, and I knew a bit of Bed Shaped. I think it was okay because 1) Tom’s voice is beautiful and huge; it can carry across the ocean; 2) he was mighty miked up; 3) we were outside so our voices sort of lifted up into the air and then dissipated over our heads. It wasn’t like one of those shows when other people’s singing interferes with your enjoyment of the artist’s performance. There is limited bleacher seating but you have to get there early or be a VIP. I wasn’t either. So I stood the whole time. You have to be committed to the show to do that. There are only a handful I would withstand that for and Keane is one of the bands that makes the cut! They were so great. I guess it could’ve been better if I could’ve seen more consistently but I saw all of them and felt like I got a live and memorable Keane experience!

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I saw an amazing movie this weekend that helped purge the memory of Pirates 3 out of my mind. It is called Once. I highly recommend it! It is about an aspiring musician, or “the Guy,” in Ireland played by Glen Hansard, formerly of The Frames, now doing solo work, who meets “the Girl” played by musician Marketa Irglova. They have their personal issues but they connect through their love of music. I already dl’d the soundtrack. I can’t believe Marketa is only 19. I mean, she looks like a teenager in the movie and I’m sure they made it a couple of years ago so she must’ve been 17 or 18 at the most. The writer/director is John Carney of The Frames. He took a sort of Dogma 95 approach to it with using mostly if not solely natural lighting and mostly sound as it occurred naturally within the film. You can read a review at the NYT.

Without further ado, KEANE!

Finally, almost a year after I was supposed to see them (9/06), and then had my hopes dashed when the 1/07 show was cancelled, I am going to see Keane this week! Yay!

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Well, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End was about 2 hours too long. It has a running time of 2 hours and 45 minutes. I slept for a good part of it because I was hot and unfocused. The theater was under-air-conditioned. I mean, I’m all for conserving energy but it was 90 degrees out and it was a full house. They could’ve turned it up a bit. I was stuck in the center trying to make sense of the convoluted plot and trying to keep my energy level up. It wasn’t horrible. It was just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. I enjoyed every minute of Johnny Depp’s performance. He seemed like he was in it for the good time. He looked great. Kiera Knightley and Orlando Bloom also made for handsome, well-groomed pirates. Their skin looked great and their teeth were straight and white. Chow Yun-Fat had a tiny role. I will continue to treasure his performances in those John Woo movies and ignore the rest. Really, people who are so disparaging towards Spiderman 3 have no measure of what truly makes a movie not worth seeing. I admit I had extremely low expectations for At World’s End and they were met. On the other hand, I would trek out to Spiderman 3 again in the theater if it my plans ended up going that way.

Shrek 3
I had fairly low expectations for this one too and it was better than I thought it would be. Wait, did I already say this? It lacked the zip of the first two Shreks. But I was definitely chuckling here and there. The story was a little drawn out but the movie was watchable enough. I’m okay with having made the effort to see it in a theater. It was certainly better than Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

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Wow, I didn’t get the twist until the end that it was a flash FORWARD for a change. NOT a flashback. So who was in the coffin? Who got off the island? Who is Kate living with in the future? I was wondering why Jack was looking at all of those atlases. It seemed like he was looking for an island or THE ISLAND but I couldn’t figure out why he’d be doing that in the past. As for the present day storyline, I can’t blame Jack for going through with the satellite phone call. They’ve been on the island for 90+ days. How are they supposed to know that for once Ben, villain extraordinaire, is telling them the truth? I can’t believe Charlie is gone. He’s a true hero. He was at peace knowing he saved Desmond and possibly everyone else – as long as Desmond gets back to ground and exposes Naomi for the fake she seems to be although she did seem quite out of commission. Speaking of good villains, I’m a bit surprised at Tom’s demise. But Sawyer had a point about how he kidnapped Walt at the end of Season 1 and that did not turn out well for many of them. And that was weird with Walt. I knew he was going to talk to Locke. I saw that coming because I saw David Malcolm Kelley’s name in the opening credits and then when we saw that Locke was still kickin’ it seemed fitting that he get a message from his bud Walt. OMG and what about Jack finally telling Kate something she wanted to hear but never thought she would – that he loves her! But in the future, something doesn’t work out and they are NOT together. Is she with Sawyer who loves her too? Is she with Ben for some twisted reason? Three more seasons to figure it all out. LOST won’t be back until next January. That is January of 2008! This is Sopranos style waiting we have to do. Sigh.

Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls

I already boo-hooed about the end of this series. Loved that Logan still loves Veronica. Kyle Secor seemed to relish being the baddie after his run as the good guy in Homicide. The VM finale had a lot of set up for the next season. Rob Thomas did not expect to be canceled this time around. But maybe he and his crew will do a tv movie like Amy Sherman-Palladino hinted she would like to do wrap up loose ends in the Gilmore Girls story. Interesting…it seemed that she was the only one in the know about it as Alexis Bledel, Lauren Graham and Luke (who is that – Scott Patterson?) were all surprised to hear about the possibility. At any rate, the ending was good. I liked that Rory declined Logan’s proposal and set off to find her way, explore the world, take advantage of her youth and opportunities ahead of her. I liked that Lorelei and Luke reconciled. It was a satisfying ending.

Dance, dance, dance

So Apolo Ohno and Julianne Hough won Dancing with the Stars. As an avid fan of this season, I’m satisfied with this outcome. They were fabu and totally adorable as a team. I think Joey Fatone and Kym Johnson were also impressively entertaining and talented. I started watching the show because I thought Joey Fatone would be fun to watch and he was but I was won over by the youthful vibrancy of Apolo and Julianne. Incidentally, the 18 year old is actually engaged! She should take a cue from the fictional but wise Rory Gilmore and see the world before taking such a big step! But she’s an amazing choreographer and dancer and charming, charming person so it seems.

Heroes and 24

I didn’t finish watching 24 yet so I’m withholding comment but Heroes was good. I’m impressed they wrapped things up in a 63 minute ep rather than these 2 hour finales everyone else seems to be getting. But I loved the 2 hour LOST finale. Oh my gosh. I’m still thinking about Jack and Charlie et al. So Heroes was decently wrapped up and set up to continue. I also just read that Peter and Nathan Petrelli will be returning in some form in Season 2. Hope I didn’t just spoil that for someone. I could be mistaken. I get my news from the same sources as everyone else.

House

Now that I’m totally into House, I’m looking forward to this season finale as well as catching up on all of those Season 3 eps I missed out on because I wasn’t watching it yet. Love that House. Here’s my fan fiction episode idea – what if House had to diagnose what was up with Peter Parker or Clark Kent? Think about it. Personally, I like it. I see intriguing possibilities. In fact, normally, I would keep a good idea like this to myself for my own amusement and entertainment but hey, enjoy. I’m sure I’m not the only one in the world who’s thought of this before!

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While I mourn over the end of Veronica Mars, let me share that Ricky Gervais was very funny and entertaining during his first American stand up gig last night at the theater at Madison Square Garden for the High Line Festival. David Bowie introduced him by singing that song he, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant wrote together about the “pathetic, little fat man, no one’s bloody laughing.” More lyrics: “He’s benign and facile, he’s a fat waste of space, little fat man with the pug nose…” Ah, heck, here’s the whole song, courtesy of a fellow fan. David Bowie had the audience singing along like the bar patrons in the Extras ep:

…
See his pug-nosed face…Pug, pug, pug, pug,
See his pug-nosed face…Pug, pug, pug, pug,
See his pug-nosed face…Pug, pug, pug, pug,
The little fat man with the pug-nosed face, Pug, pug, pug, pug,
Little fat man, pug-nosed face, Pug, pug, pug, pug,
He’s a little fat pug-nosed face, Pug, pug, pug, pug.

Ricky Gervais is currently in the middle of a UK tour so I think a lot of his material was from that show. But he is a master improviser so I’m sure he did some stuff ad lib. I had heard a few jokes on various talk shows he’s done. But regardless, his style is very natural and you really feel like he’s just as amused as you are by what he’s saying. Anyway, it was straight up stand up, no frills, just him in a t-shirt and jeans with a mike pack telling his jokes. Good stuff!

EDIT: I just feel I have to emphasize that the David Bowie song is satire. I know you know. I know anyone who’s a fan of Ricky Gervais knows he’s all about the funnies. I’m just saying that for the kids.

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