Review: Temper Trap (U2 related)

Dougy Mandagi, Temper Trap's singer

It's Halloween night and, at Tripod, the ghost of stadium rock past is clanking its chains. Cheered on by an audience of men in spandex super-hero costumes and women in neon wigs, Australia's Temper Trap are making their Irish headline debut.
During the howling instrumental opener, frontman Dougy Mandagi attacks a marching band drum with feral abandon whilst guitarist Lorenzo Sillitto, whose 70s sitcom moustache may or may not be a Halloween affectation, conjures the sort of vast, chiming chords with which The Edge captured Middle America 20 years ago.
To be fair, there's nothing wrong with wanting to sound like U2 -- especially as, judging by 'No Line On The Horizon', the actual U2 are no longer really up for the job. Alas, there are moments when Temper Trap aim for Bono but come up a bit Chris Martin (with a hint of Radiohead in jazz-fusion mode). On several slower numbers, in particular, Mandagi's arena-scale falsetto feels jarringly out of place in a relatively intimate venue.
Still, it can't be denied that debut album 'Conditions' contains several quasi-classics. With its swooshing guitars and addictive ooh-ooh chorus, 'Fader' transcends the heavy-footed righteousness infecting much of their work and rockets skywards. Later, we arrive at their anthem, 'Sweet Disposition', a glimmering torch song that reworks the opening riff from 'Where The Streets Have No Name' into mid-tempo indie ballad. More of this and Temper Trap truly would be worth all the hype.

source : http://www.independent.ie by Ed Power