You'd expect the crowd at DNCE to be younger -- I mean high-school young -- but it wasn't as young as many as expected. It's a school night, after all.
The American dance-rock band's first time in Thailand last Thursday kicked off with members Joe Jonas (lead vocals), JinJoo Lee (guitar), Cole Whittle (comic relief) and Jack Lawless (drums) entering with animal heads. Cue in some flag flying and, amusingly, Circle Of Life plays in the background, before Jonas sacrifices the blow-up plastic cub to screaming fans. There was high energy and the most energetic of them all, fashion nemesis Whittle, was running around stage all night with his guitar when not stationed at the keyboard. Watching Whittle horse around with his antics such as but not limited to rolling on the floor, tossing his guitar, just being silly was a show of its own, providing a light-hearted component. I was hoping they'd just play their two most popular singles on repeat throughout the whole hour, but there's actually a whole list of songs to get through: such as Naked, DNCE, Body Moves, Zoom and Good Day. It all sort of sounds the same, but breaking into TLC's No Scrubs added some hip hop funk to the set list.
It was hard to hear what Jonas was singing most of the time, the music and drums drowning him out, but when the breather came in the form of three slow songs, it was a real treat to hear how great Jonas's voice is live. The music may not seem to require singing prowess, but his vocals gave life and emotion to lyrics that could not have gotten by on their own merits. The four members sat down in a row to perform the acoustic versions of Truthfully, Jinx and Almost, in front of simple white lights and none of the distracting and popping graphic visuals.
Saving the best for last, the band finally broke out into Toothbrush toward the last third of the show, as well as Kissing Strangers, with Whittle filling in delightfully for Nicki Minaj. With his hair, closet and 'tude, he could easily be the male incarnation of the bootilicious rapper in another job description. The whole hall could sing these hits, and the dance floor revved up with confetti and smoke going up a notch for these crowd-pleasers. Some tunes from Britney Spears and Spice Girls were also thrown in before Cake By The Ocean, much to the bewilderment of the younglings at the show.
For all their fun frolics, DNCE did wrap up neatly, with Jonas flying the Thai flag and others putting their hands together to wai at the end of the show. The concert was easy to digest, like their music, which you could easily bop to. You'd know exactly when the climax was coming even though you haven't heard the song before and it's times like these when predictability isn't such a bad thing.
