Live Review: The Script

The dark, dim stage of Adelaide’s Entertainment Centre echoes with an impatient ambience.

With the venue’s seating heavily filled and the floor packed, the crowd’s anxious wait for three-piece Irish pop-rock band The Script to appear on stage is rising. Suddenly, the venue goes pitch black, nothing but a video of the band backstage playing on the big screen. The video shows them ambling up the stairs and the audience goes wilder with every step. As they approach the entrance of the floor crowd, the audience applause is deafening and the excitement hits its first peak.

Green fluoro-lit flags light up the sides of a cleared-off runway as the band members run through the crowd, giving high fives and flashing wide smiles at the fans. Finally bursting on the stage they blast out opening number, Paint The Town Green, reflecting their Irish heritage, an upbeat, energetic number setting a vigorous mood from the get-go.

Lead singer Danny O’Donoghue peps up the audience by announcing how ecstatic he is to be back in Australia and that although the band hasn’t been here in a long time they’re very happy to be welcomed back so openheartedly.

Next they blast out one of their most famous tracks, Breakeven, which has the whole audience singing along and waving their arms in unison. With bright red LED lights and a live camera backdrop zooming in on O’Donoghue’s expressions it’s clear performing is his passion. For almost the entirety of the set O’Donoghue is beaming from ear to ear and it’s nice to see his grin proves contagious to the audience.

Splitting the crowd into two, much like the parting of the Red Sea, the crowd then take part in an affable “sing off”. The band members unable to decide which half of the audience is better, they launch into next song, If You Could See Me Now.

Lead guitarist, Mark Sheehan, then takes the stage and explains the story behind the next song, Man On A Wire, confessing to his irrational fear of heights, the inspiration behind writing the track. Sheehan then explains that to help him get over the fear, the whole band decided they’d film the video clip on the rooftop of an incredibly tall building. The band then play footage from the song’s video clip on the back screen. The audience proceeds to congratulate the band for helping conquer Sheehan’s fear with a roar of applause as the band launches into the track live.

The stage lights dim and a piano decorated with candles is wheeled out. The drummer and guitarist sit the next few songs out as O’Donoghue performs a few acoustic numbers, Without Those Songs and The Man Who Can’t Be Moved among them, the audience swaying in silence, these songs expressing an emotional side to the performance as the band speaks about differences in human colour, religion, shape and size. O’Donoghue urges the audience to remember that we’re all one and we’ve all come together to embrace music on this special evening. He then instructs the crowd to all put their phones and cameras away for this one moment in which he wants everyone to be effusively present. Blue sparkles appear on the backdrop and the band blasts out their hit, The Energy Never Dies.

Fibbing to the crowd, the band abruptly announces the end of the show and quickly evacuate the stage leaving the crowd, in shock, to begin chanting for them to return, which, naturally, they eventually do, beaming with more energy than ever.

The Script then blast out their final two songs, For The First Time and Hall Of Fame, both of which helped the band attain so much success due to their popularity. The audience chant along passionately to both tracks, definitely the best choices to finish the night off with. White confetti spirals down during the end of Hall Of Fame, topping off an incredible performance.