Barely Breathing? Try Barely Awake

Last Saturday a couple of friends and I went to a Duncan Sheik concert. Remember him? He's the indie-pop singer/songwriter that had the hit single "Barely Breathing." I figured since I am only going to be in the states until late spring, I better catch as many concerts as I can. Besides, I kinda like Duncan Sheik songs like the one I mentioned earlier, "Wishful Thinking," and "On a High." I was hoping to see those songs performed live.

The concert is held at Triple Door, a very posh place. Showgoers are seated in dinner tables instead of standing in a general admission setting. Since it's a seated venue, space is very limited. While enjoying the show, you can order dinner, wine, or cocktail from the fine menu (fine = bloody fucking pricey). The tables are arranged in tiers, so that every table could get a clear view of the stage. We were lucky to get a table. There were six of us and we were about nine places down the list.

The show was opened by Jim Boggia, an acoustic guitar playing singer/songwriter type performer. He performed alone. No backup, just him and his acoustic guitar. He has a nice, raspy voice a la John Mellencamp or John Mayer. In fact, his clear and crisp guitar play reminisce Mayer's style of play in "No Such Thing." He's also quite the entertainer, cracking jokes and having fun with the audience. A standout song he did was "I Realized This Afternoon While Driving to Connecticut." Check the lyrics and you'll see why the audience went wild hearing him singing it. He closed his set with a beautiful cover of Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die."

After Boggia, the show went south of the border. The next performer was a British bloke named Teddy Thompson. He's an acoustic guitar playing singer/songwriter type. Do you see a pattern here? He's rather dreary, I'm afraid. His music might be better on record, heard through a speakers or headphones in a quiet room. Performed live, it was dull. He sang lazily like Rufus Wainwright, with mouth barely moved in vocalizing the lyrics. His music also matches Wainwright's dreary, mournful atmosphere. Not surprisingly, further research says that he actually had a duet with Wainwright. A positive in his set is Thompson's dry British humor, but it still couldn't save his boring performance.

When Thompson finished his set, the main show starts. Unlike the opening acts, Sheik brings a full band: a drummer, a bassist, and a lead guitarist. Sheik himself plays an acoustic guitar. The additional instruments raised the audience's mood after the previous set. I don't know any other Duncan Sheik songs other than the three I listed earlier, but I can clearly hear his stamp on the songs he performed: The acoustic rhythm guitar, the small melodies from the electric guitar, his light vocals, and his peculiar choice of words. He kept on playing song after song I never heard before. He did play "Wishful Thinking," but that's the only one I could recognize. The songs are fairly good pop songs, but not really memorable. I grew sleepy over time.

After about an hour of performance, the band finished their set. I was in deep shock. They haven't played "Barely Breathing" and "On a High," arguably his two best hits. My friends were surprised too. Then I figured that the show's not really over. There would be an encore. He would come back and play the two songs.

He did come back for an encore. But after four songs in and still no "Barely Breathing," I started to worry. My worry was realized when he finished the last song of the encore and bid the audience good night. It's really the end of the show; there isn't another encore. He really didn't want to play "Barely Breathing" and "On a High."

I was let down by the omission of the two songs from the set. It's like celebrating New Year without counting down to zero or going to a bar just to drink Coke. It's not like he has other huge hits like those. It's just two songs for fuck's sake! Even U2 still plays "One" and "With or Without You" in their set. Those two songs define U2 just as "Barely Breathing" defines Duncan Sheik, the show description from Triple Door even mentions the song's prominence. By not playing "Barely Breathing" and "On a High" Sheik did a disservice to the audience. Or at least me.