“What’s Spanish for cool?” James Walsh, the pleasantly love-handled frontman of British band Starsailor, asks the audience at the surprisingly crowded Paradise Rock Club. Someone in the audience obliges Walsh by shouting in Spanish, and Walsh butchers the word into an undecipherable mess as he repeats it. Then he proclaims, “We’ll be alright when we go to Brazil.” A long uncomfortable silence follows.
Starsailor’s entire show Tuesday night skipped along at this rate – they place their bets high and come close to greatness, but never land on the money.
However, Starsailor isn’t totally shipwrecked either. In a sea of jaded U.K. bands who play like they’re doing the audience a huge favor, Starsailor actually looked like they enjoy themselves onstage.
And their fans shared the enthusiasm, mouthing many of the words along with Walsh. The mostly 20-something crowd included a large Brit population, a sprinkling of college kids and Jon from “Road Rules” Season 5.
But perhaps Starsailor should be called The James Walsh Show, considering he was the only band member who attempted to connect with the audience. The straight-toothed Brit hammed it up onstage – kicking, jumping and swinging his hips for more than an hour with no signs of shame or tiredness. Meanwhile, the rest of the band members simply did their jobs, with bass player James Stelfox strangely resembling Boy George.
The band played a mixed bag of songs from 2002’s Love is Here and this year’s Silence is Easy, along with U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name,” which Walsh tackled solo. During most numbers, Walsh sounded like a pepped up David Gray crossed with John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls.
Watching Walsh oh-so-seriously belt “Don’t you know you’ve got your Daddy’s eyes/Daddy was an alcoholic” during the second song, Starsailor seemed like a fictional band created for a movie. But as he meowed out this melodramatic drivel, the audience only wanted more. And they got more – 13 more songs.
During the U2 cover, a ponytailed, turtlenecked girl sang and danced fanatically. Another swayed, closing her eyes periodically. Then the Paradise transformed into a Baptist youth group rally as the audience chanted along with Walsh, “I was born again. I was born again.”
This energy and connection lasted through the encore, which included their biggest hit, “Good Souls,” and “Silence is Easy,” the new single sure to be featured in a serene car commercial any day now.
Starsailor, a Brit quartet aiming to share audiences with Coldplay and their beloved U2, don’t really have anything that special to offer – average looks, average songs. But when aloof bands are a dime a dozen, a bit of audience appreciation can be just what the captain prescribed.
