The Bravery rock out at the Paradise

After an agonizing 30 minutes, the lights finally dimmed and the crowd erupted into shrieks before The Bravery even started the first few notes of "Split Me Wide Open." The energy in the room kicked into gear, and the past impatience melted away as arms went up, swaying in unison. By the time the opening drum solo of "Public Service Announcement" filled the room, all delays were forgiven.

The Bravery formed, like most modern rock bands, in New York City, but have enjoyed considerable fame abroad in the UK. They supported British heavyweights such as U2 and Depeche Mode on tour in the past, and have sold out multiple music festivals on both sides of the Atlantic every year - and they certainly don't disappoint on stage.

Whereas many underground rock bands start out with the classic guitar, bass, and drums line up and then may experiment with synths and keyboards on later albums, The Bravery heavily displayed their electronica tendencies alongside the guitar riffs and drum rolls in their self-titled debut album and actually decided to "experiment" more with acoustic instruments and a more organic sound for their second album. They haven't left their dance-rock roots, though; The Sun and the Moon is planned as a 2-disc release, one side a tracklisting of more classic rock songs, and the other side a self-remake of the same track-listing giving tribute to their synthetic home turf.

For their Boston concert at the Paradise Rock Club on Monday, two U.K. bands opened up the show. Your Vegas, a generic Brit rock outfit, helped get the crowd's ears accustomed to the futuristic, resounding bass beats, but the energy didn't really get going until the next band, Switches, took the stage. "You're a nice and polite crowd, but tonight we want to turn you into whores," lead singer Matt Bishop crooned into his microphone. The crowd roared its approval.

The show sold out weeks in advance, and the venue cramped under the pressure; people began bottlenecking in the corners and second-level by the time the Bravery finally appeared. Decked in fitted leather jackets, blazers, sweater vests and perfectly cropped cigarette jeans with exposed argyle socks, the Bravery embodied the image of young rock stars in the 60s. They kept up a steady conversation with the crowd, lead singer Sam Endicott casually flicked used guitar picks into the audience between songs and bassist Mike Hindert even whipped out a red Sony Cybershot from his jacket pocket and snapped a few pictures of the crowd before launching into "The Ocean".

The set list included over half of the songs from their second album, as well as a few teasers for the upcoming self-remake album that will release in March. The lighting was kept dim for the majority of the songs, perhaps to allow for full impact of the near-seizure inducing flashes that kicked up once the opening bars of "Honest Mistake" sounded. The concert generally displayed the new organic rock side of the Bravery's musical radar, but they did end their encore with "Unconditional," a song from their debut dance-rock album.

Judging by the way the crowd's feet never once stopped moving during the entire set, The Bravery know how to put on a good show.

--- Bing Chen, Muse Contributing Writer