You've heard The Temper Trap's music on "Greek," "The Vampire Diaries," "One Tree Hill" and "500 Days of Summer." Their music generally plays while the camera pans to a depressed looking individual who is mourning the loss of their "one true" love.
Well, let me just say, seeing The Temper Trap perform live at Bonnaroo didn't make me want to cry, sit with my head in my hands or run through the streets in the rain. Judging from the surrounding audience gathered at the Which Stage to see them a couple weeks ago, I'd say they are on the same page as me. The Temper Trap put on one of the most heartfelt, body swaying and lyric shouting performances at Bonnaroo this year.
The crowd danced wildly and clapped along as the Aussie band played "Love Lost," "Rabbit Hole," and "Fader" among many others.
The Temper Trap made a mad dash to get down to Manchester, TN just to watch Radiohead perform the night before. "Toby [Dundas] is a big Radiohead fan so he insisted on the drive," bassist Jonathon Aherne explained why the group decided to take the 20 hour drive down from Boston. "But it was worth it, terrific show."
The band gained a lot of listeners with their 2009 album "Conditions," and when they popped on over to Bonnaroo they had just released their new album "The Temper Trap" only a couple days before.
Their new self titled album is a great follow up to "Conditions." Carrying Dougy's unique high pitch vocals, the whole band seems to evolve with this album, sounding stronger as a group.
The Temper Trap unveiled a good handful of new songs at their Bonnaroo set, and while it's nerve wracking to see how the crowd responds to previously unheard music, those at the Which Stage were very open to the new sound.
Toby and Jonathon were definitely excited to see the reaction from the Bonnaroo crowd. The band mates cited "Trembling Hands" one of their favorite songs of "The Temper Trap." "It seems to get an ovation because Dougy hits a pretty high note, and in mid song some people start clapping," explains Jonathon.
As we sit outside at a picnic table baking under the hot Tennessee sun, our conversation turns to the success of their music on TV.
"Because we're not always in the states we don't watch that much TV, so we kind of don't get to see too many of those," Toby says of teen shows like "Greek" and "The Vampire Diaries."
"We checked out '500 Days of Summer,'" Toby says thinking of movies that their songs have been featured in. "That was cool."
While the Aussie band doesn't get to actually catch too much of their music on the American teen shows, they are hoping that some of the music off their new album hits show soundtracks this fall. Toby is specifically rooting for one show..."The Walking Dead."
"We're kind of hoping one of those comes up," Toby says of their favorite shows "The Walking Dead" and "Breaking Bad." "I'm a bit zombie obsessed," he laughs.
But seriously, I can picture it already. A zombie rips into Hershel as his daughters scream off to the side, being held back by Rick or T-Dog with the sound of a heartbreaking Temper Trap song gently plays over. It's easy to imagine, right? I hope your reading this AMC.
"When I watch zombie movies I end up staying up all night imagining how I would escape from wherever I am," Toby explains, the conversation taking a serious turn. "When I watched '28 Days Later' I stood awake for the next 24 hours planning on how to escape out of my bedroom after the zombie apocalypse," he continued with a straight face as Jonathon laughed off on the side.
"I'm going to use my smarts and run away...be swift at foot," Toby says of his plan in case the Mayan apocalypse of 2012 is a plague of flesh eating zombies.
"I would definitely have lots of cans of baked beans," Jonathon says of his zombie survival plan , "My weapon of choice would be a tomahawk for sure."
If you haven't checked out The Temper Traps new self titled album it's now available on iTunes.
