The Basics- Keep Your Friends Close Album Tour

Last night Tash, Mary, Mel and I met at Mexicali Rose for dinner (surprise, surprise) before heading to The Corner Hotel to see The Basics play to support the release of their brilliant new album Keep Your Friends Close. The opening acts were The Boy Who Cried Wolf (aka Jordie Lane) and Summer Edmunds who both played solo on guitar. They were both decent but we were chatting and didn't end up paying too much attention to them.

We moved up near the front of the stage for The Basics set. Coming out wearing brand new grey suits they started the evening with "Fear of Failure" and played the entire Keep Your Friends Close album. To help recreate the sounds on the album they had additional musicians on stage to play keyboard, guitar, percussion, and saxophone on various songs. Highlights of the main set for me were "The No. 1 Cause of Death Amongst Youth Today," "The Day Mairead Goes Away," and "With This Ship," which had the whole crowd singing along. Kris played on violin while Tim sang "Trouble in his Head" (which was a first). Another exciting moment was when Kris made direct eye contact with both Mary and I during "Like A Brother."

Kris came out at the start of the encore to play "All or Nothing" solo on the acoustic guitar. The rest of the band came out and they ran through "Second Best" (where Wally flubbed the lyrics of the first verse), "Have Love, Will Travel," "Rattle My Chain" and "Hey There!" The boys finished the night with a version of the J.J. Cale song "Cocaine" (most famously covered by Eric Clapton). It was a great night and one of the best shows I've seen The Basics play. Go buy their album- it's fantastic.