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Straight from The Script

The Script wrote nothing short of a wonder as they wrapped up their 2011 ‘Science & Faith’ Australian tour. Yeliz Selvi sang along at their last performance in Melbourne.

Watching The Script perform was a lot like watching a group of humble and talented mates doing what they love to do and gaining roaring applause for it – at the same time leaving their audience very much in awe.

The Irish trio performed at Festival Hall in Melbourne last Tuesday and Wednesday night and it was definitely a lively experience. Vibes from the mosh pit gushed up to audience members in the stand, where I felt each and every guitar stroke, piano note and drum beat.

People of all ages slowly filled the arena – with a surprisingly even male to female ratio – and were welcomed by the sounds of support act Tinie Tempah on Wednesday night. The English rapper delivered the perfect amount of energy to his fans with current dance tracks ‘Miami 2 Ibiza’ and ‘I Wanna Know Your Name’, before performing his recently successful track ‘Written In The Stars’.

The Script lads gave a bold delivery of crowd pleasers from their current album, Science & Faith, opening with ‘For You’ and including ‘Nothing’, along with previous hits ‘We Cry’ and ‘Before the Worst’.

The biggest disappointment of the night, however, was that some audience members seemed much less passionate about being there.

Setting the performance of any band aside, it’s often a crowd that can make or break the experience. Until the band sang favourites ‘Break Even’ and ‘For the First Time’, I felt completely exposed being among the only group of people to shout, dance and sing along. Regardless of this, the show aimed to please, and ultimately enlightened and inspired audience members as they waved iPhones and cameras to join in on the moment.

Lead singer, 25-year-old Danny O’Donaghue, opened up and bore all with his honest and lyrical poetry. What he created were memorable one-liners of now memorable songs. The band paused often to give background stories of the next song and which heartbreaking moment in life it sprang from.

Before Danny sat in the spotlight, guitar in hand, for the acoustic of ‘I’m Yours’, he explained his 4am sleepless nights with a bottle of wine and how the song came about. Admittedly after that, it was difficult not to shed a tear.

But the show will not be remembered for the ballads or even for the bands’ story about ‘drunk texting’ – they pointed out Danny as a main offender. Nor will it be memorable because of guitarist Mark Sheehan, as he flung himself around on stage in a raging passion – dance moves more suited to the likes of INXS than The Script. Not even for Danny’s fashionable and daring black harem pants, shuffling on stage with one foot and reaching high peaks in notes without a crack.

Those moments were soon forgotten. The pleasure in watching such an intimate group of friends still lost in awe at the hype of their success, almost unable to contain the gratitude they felt towards fans or respond appropriately to their exploding reaction, was the highlight of the night. As avid Twitter fans, the band captured their audience in a live tweet; everybody was joined with the world in that moment.

It’s hard to believe that the band has only released two albums to date. Despite their string of successful singles, the Dublin lads have remained grounded and aware of the past they came from.

And there was not a fan in the room that couldn’t sing along after Danny’s opening line from ‘Break Even’; ‘I’m still alive but I’m barely breathing’ was enough to describe my state from the beginning of the show.

Yeliz Selvi is a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism student at La Trobe University. Yeliz has also completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Media Studies at La Trobe. You can find out more about her in her blog.

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