The Temper Trap at the Forum

For those of us in the UK, Aussie indie rockers The Temper Trap are kind of a fleeting but pleasant memory. Along with bands like MGMT, Metronomy, and The Naked and Famous, their hit Sweet Disposition is part of an indie kid’s hazy, dreamy soundtrack to the late noughties or early 2010s.

It’s a song that brings to mind a playlist from a party one shared pictures of in the early days of social media – before we all worried about glorified photo albums and message boards taking over the world and turning people into Nazis.

At the Kentish Town Forum, The Temper Trap show that there is more to them than that. Playing a set that showcases a depth that’s more than what you half remembered, they go through Love Lost and Fader, from their defining debut album, Conditions. 

Frontman Dougy Mandagi’s vocals often touch on the falsetto but have a deeper resonance that would drift across the venue, were it not packed to the rafters. Lucky Dimes, with its distortion, serves as a reminder that this is a rock band.

It’s no disparagement to say that in the first half, the highlight is a cover: Moby’s Extreme Ways is fantastic anyway, but it’s great to hear The Temper Trap’s take on it.

After that, we also get the enjoyably dissolute Science of Fear, with its wandering riffs, and the instrumental Drum Song, which is delightfully obtuse while still maintaining The Temper Trap’s indie pop/rock sensibilities.

The band then exits. Encores are now less a treat, more an obligation. Yet the crowd leaps with joy when the opening chords of Sweet Disposition ring out. It is, after all, what everyone has come to see. The signature hit that sparks thousands of good memories.

Mandagi and bandmates Toby Dundas, Jonathon Aherne and Joseph Greer must be somewhat sick of being defined by it. They would assuredly like to wax lyrical about the somewhat similar new single Giving Up Air. But when it’s a track as good as Sweet Disposition, it should be a point of pride.

It is a tune whose delicate marrying of guitar line and vocals will have been part of the soundtrack to many a couple’s yearning first meeting across a sullied house party carpet.

That’s enough to recommend them as a band. But what makes the live show worth the ticket price is that they are far more than one-hit wonders. For all the rapture in the crowd of hearing the big hit, there’s plenty to enjoy and allow to wash over you during the rest of a set that lasts well over an hour.

Mark Worgan
Photos: Virginie Viche

For further information and future events, visit The Temper Trap’s website here.

Watch the video for Sweet Disposition here: