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C'mon People | |
Fran Healy and friends want you to join the band.
"When we play, we just want to make everybody feel like they're in the band," lanky blond bassist Dougie Payne had commented earlier this evening. Fittingly, when Travis kick into ancient jumpalong single "Happy" at the climax of tonight's show, it only takes one word from Fran Healy to send the girls dancing at the stagefront scrambling up to join them. The aisles are soon rammed with crowd members rushing to be included. The uncommonly good-natured security at Minneapolis's State Theatre watches amiably as the stage fills with jubilant intruders.
Pretty soon, Travis almost achieve their oft-stated wish of becoming invisible. Healy can just be made out gamely trying to deliver the lyrics. A full stage invasion hasn't happened for nearly two years, but this mass of flailing limbs and voices shouting, "I'm so happy, 'cos you're so happy" feels like the obvious way to end a Travis gig. At times like this, the idea that they are in some way boring seems ludicrous.
"I had it done before Reading, but I'm losing it soon," he explains of this new colour choice. "I'm keeping the fin, though. It's my cut. Although I was reading on the message board that there's guys now walking round Australia with them."
"That haircut's going to be our legacy," reckons Dunlop.
The floor is strewn with gifts from local fans. The curator of the Groovy Dougie Website has presented her hero with T-shirts showing Glasgow's Fab Four as South Park characters. More intriguingly, there's a neatly bound book titled "Dougietoons" featuring illustrations of the lanky bass player attempting a variety of Mr. Benn-style costume changes. Dougie Stardust has a flash on his forehead. With his long black hair and cape, Goth Dougie is more disturbing. Most alluring of all, though, is the foxy schoolgirl vision of Britney Dougie.
"Mmmm," comments goateed drummer Neil Primrose. "That's my favourite."
Following an enjoyable summer supporting Dido, the band are now halfway through their second U.S. tour of the past six months. Their fanbase here is steadily growing with one recent Letterman appearance even introducing them to Travis fan Julia Roberts. "I said to her, 'Have you ever been onstage when a band is soundchecking?'" Healy recalls. "So she just came on and stood there like a startled lamb."
Back home, although still lodged near the U.K. Top 10 months after its release, it's fair to say that third album The Invisible Band hasn't captured public imaginations in quite the same way as its unstoppable predecessor. For this "people's band," a slight problem?
"I just think we make records that are slow-burners," reckons an unconcerned Healy. "It's like a fine wine. You take the lid off it and let it breathe for a little while. It just tastes better and better the more, uh, pissed you get!"
Payne recently admitted that, during the sessions, panic set in before Healy eventually produced a new batch of songs. But even with these additions, it's clearly not such a step on.
"After selling two million records, there's not many places you can go," Healy responds.
"In Europe, The Invisible Band has taken hold more than The Man Who," adds Primrose.
"In France, we almost had a Number 1 single with 'Sing'," Healy concludes. "And we couldn't get arrested there before. We're massive in Norway now, too. And in Iceland and Australia and Japan. But the difficult part of coming back after you've had a big album is trying to be a world band. You've got to keep all the plates spinning, and we're just running around trying to keep it all going."
"Recent events," as they've become known, obviously haven't overly dampened mid-American spirits. The weekend's news might be filled with footage of FBI men in sci-fi suits, but no empty seats can be seen tonight. The packed house takes to its feet as the group comes on. Opener "Sing"--resembling an upbeat version of The Man Who's second track "The Fear"--is a sudden reminder that hearing Healy's soaring, soothing voice at close quarters is an extraordinary thing.
Neither that song's theme of coveting your neighbour's Fiesta nor "Follow the Light"'s grand exhortations not to be afraid of the dark particularly resonate on the universal, emotional level we've come to expect. The only time tonight that the new material feels truly transcendent is in the touching frail blues of "The Humpty Dumpty Love Song."
Then Healy bashes out the opening chord to set closer "Blue Flashing Light" and elicits the largest cheers so far. This gritty, messed-up song is apparently the kind of thing "the people" like. Healy's solo encore of touching early B-side "20" is as good as anything else tonight. "Ul6 Girls" is thrown in for the hell of it, and a dazzling version of Mott The Hoople's "All The Young Dudes" sees Dougie Stardust momentarily taking centre stage.
After the stage invasion, tonight is adjudged a triumph. But having found their songwriting voice, Travis seem unsure of where to go next--and pushing it to ever more literal extremes certainly isn't the answer. Meanwhile, that job of spinning all those plates never quite lets up.
Q
Earlier in the afternoon, Q finds the group playing Scrabble in the venue's basement dressing room. Payne is the current champion of their tour pastime of choice (and also holder of the highest score with 243). While they ponder intently ove whether "asshole" is an Americanism and whether "quasi" is a prefix, Healy fondles his now-pink fin haircut and studies his tiles.
Quickly returning to their breakthrough album, there's a deep resonance to the pleading "Writing To Reach You" and the yearning "As You Are" (which briefly unleashes Dunlop's guitar hero potential)--perhaps because their inspiration was so specific. The ruminative "Last Train" and neatly ambiguous "Indefinitely" then suggest Travis can still make songs that fill out rather than flatten life's tender mysteries. Oddly, doubts emerge with the new album's defining moments. "We're all on this world together," says Fran, introducing "Side." "It's usually just a couple of shitty people who fuck it up for everyone. And they're the ones who go and hide down in the bunkers and wait for it all to blow over."
December 2001
Text: Steve Lowe
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