the ting tings live review

The Ting Tings Live Review | Doing it All | The Social Orlando | April 14, 2015

by • April 30, 2015

Admittedly, my exposure to The Ting Tings’ music was minimal before I attended their show at The Social on Tuesday, April 14th.  I had only really heard two songs by them.  About five years ago I began hearing their massive UK-chart topping single “That’s Not My Name” on satellite radio.  It was easy to understand why the song was popular.  It was an anthemic shouting of protest against modern sexism combined with an incredibly catchy pop-rock dance vibe that probably owed more to Queen’s “We Will Rock You” than anything else.

The second time I heard them was a completely different experience.  I have two sons, one is nearly six years old and the other is nearly two.  When my oldest, M, was about two he liked to watch a show on Nick Jr. called Yo Gabba Gabba.  The show would have a musical guest every episode.  The musical guests were legitimate artists that varied from Devo to The Aquabats and everything in between.  One day he was watching and the musical guest was The Ting Tings.  They were covering Altered Images’ song “Happy Birthday” in their own style.  I thought the song was cute, and my son liked to dance to it.

All that said, I really didn’t know what to expect from their show.  So, I went in with an open mind, more curious than anything, really.  Now, if you don’t already know, The Ting Tings are a two-piece band consisting of Katie White (vocals, guitar, bass drums, bass guitar, and cowbells) and Jules De Martino (drums, lead guitar, bass guitar, vocals, and piano).  While the two do a lot of instrument swapping live, Jules plays drums and Katie plays guitar most of the time, with both singing.  Occasionally Jules would pick up a guitar and play it while still sitting at his kit.  A guitar tech/stage hand was kept very busy with Katie frequently taking off her guitar to just front the band for a section of a song.  What really made all of this work though, was a third “utility musician” who mostly played various synths, MPC’s, and occasionally some additional percussion.  This brought in a lot of the needed low-end that allowed the other two to stay fairly anchored and kept the music round and full.

Stylistically speaking, the band covered a much larger musical spectrum than I had anticipated.  There were, of course, songs and sections of songs that had an underlying British-punk influence that wasn’t trying too hard to camouflage itself.  Beyond that though, there was quite a bit of Euro-dance/electronica integrated that was quite tastefully executed.  The Social was packed to the gills. At points, The Ting Tings had the whole place hopping around like it was some modern EDM festival.  Additionally, there were songs that had a strong flavor of post-rock or shoegaze that reminded me of something I might hear by Explosions In the Sky or Mogwai (two bands of which I am quite fond).  It wasn’t that they borrowed directly from the sounds of these bands, as much as simply incorporating large, over-arching layers of sound to create a massive auditory canvas.  They really were doing a lot of different things and most importantly, doing them so well that the entire crowd was immersed in the moment for the duration of their set.

One thing that I pay attention to when I go to shows is the makeup of the crowd.  For example, different genres of music normally have a certain ratio of dudes to chicks.  For this show, I expected there to be a solid female presence, but there was much more than I expected.  I’d say it was about 65% female and 35% male in attendance.  A litmus test for the commercial viability of an artist is, I believe, if women like your music just as much as, if not more than, men do.  When an artist can get all the ladies to come out, that artist tends to make a much better living, sell more records, more tickets to shows, and so forth.

The best part about the Ting Tings show was being able to witness why they’ve had the phenomenal success that they have.  The band has won countless awards overseas and is highly decorated and respected in the international music community.  They have over a million likes on their Facebook page.  They tour the world.  And everybody comes out, regardless of Y chromosomes.

The Ting Tings Live Review by Josh.

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