The Blanks Feb 17th 2011

If you've ever watched the show Scrubs, you're probably familiar with Ted Buckland, and his band 'The Worthless Peons'. What you may not be aware of, is that they are a real a cappella band called 'The Blanks'. When i saw they were playing so close to me, i decided i should definitely go, but had absolutely no idea what to expect. There are no instruments, i'm not really sure what the music is like and i'm not sure what to do while i'm there. Do you dance? Do you sing? I thought these questions alone were enough to allow myself the evening out.

We got there and, for the first time ever there was no barrier to the stage, we were asked to stay a foot or so back, but really we could go wherever. Almost everyone at the show was there to see 'Ted' from Scrubs, and when i young, skinny guy came out a mumbled his name, nobody really got excited. His opening was awkward, during his first song, nobody was really sure if he was a joke, and everyone was just talking amongst themselves. It was a small show, and you could hear people just laughing at him. I felt sorry for the guy, his music was like nothing i'd heard before, half of his lyrics weren't even words, just sounds, like scat singing. I'm still not sure what genre it would be, but i've never seen someone turn a crowd so fast. He was only on for about 35 minutes, and when he came on, nobody cared, people were laughing at him and i'm surprised he continued. I loved it. It was weird, it was different and to go on, alone, and play this music, the guy had some stones.

After his first song, i was clapping like a madman surrounded by people clapping because they felt they should. I was in the front row, making more noise than anyone else, i was loving every minute. Nobody else seemed to understand what was happening, this was different, there was no set genre and nobody was really sure what to make of it. After 3 songs, however, everyone in the crowd was cheering, singing along to the choruses and realised that different music can be good. Unfortunately, i still didn't know what his name actually was, and was really hoping he'd mention it again. As his time ended, he walked off and said "So i'm Gideon Conn. If i do another tour, should i book a show in Lincoln?" to which the crowd, who, not half an hour ago were mocking this weird new guy suddenly erupted in applause and cheering. It was miraculous. He left, and came back for an encore. I'd never seen a support act do an encore before, i'd never heard any crowd cheer enough to warrant one, it was almost surreal. He played a few more songs, and said he'd be selling stuff in the lobby afterwards, and by this time i'd already decided i needed to buy his CD.

At around 9 o'clock, the lights went down and on walked The Blanks. Their album, 'Riding the Wave' has been out for a while, and they played almost all of it. I'd heard this CD a while ago, and they were amazing. It was definitely a 'show' and not a 'concert'. Amongst the songs they produced comedy sketches, had a little back and forth with the audience, and were generally very entertaining.

There were a few things that surprised me about their show, though. Firstly, i know much of the audience was there because it was 'Ted from Scrubs', however i would've assumed they would want to bury that link a little bit and push the band as themselves, especially as only one of them is a regular cast member. However, they kept throwing in references, and somewhat milked it for all they could. Second, Sam Lloyd, AKA 'Ted from Scrubs' never once said "By the way guys, i'm not actually called Ted", which i definitely would've done if had a role on a TV show and then had people screaming "I love you [character name]" whenever they saw me.

The majority of their show was the music they had performed either on the show, or on their CD, which i suppose is because as their first UK tour, they probably realised people probably were only really going to hear the songs they already know. These were good, and it's wonderful to see a band playing songs with no instruments, using only their voices and their bodies.




However, in my opinion, the best part of the show by far was when they played different songs. They played a montage of songs including 'Forget/F*** you', 'Barbra Streisand', and 'Dynamite'. It's also wonderful to see a group of four middle aged men singing 'Teenage Dreams' a song by a young, good looking 20-something. After playing a series of these and some unrelated holiday songs, they decided to finish up with an a cappella rendition of 'Hey Ya' by Outkast, which was surprisingly good.

After the show, however, they were having a meet and greet with the fans. So, thankfully was the wonderful fellow from the start of the show. I don't buy many CD's, but i was so taken with this guys music that i gladly bought his CD, got it signed and thanked him for coming to us. I felt a little bad that there was such a massive queue to meet The Blanks, and he was just stood around waiting for people to buy his stuff, but people kept trickling over and he seemed to be doing alright. After queueing for a while and waiting for autographs and photos, someone came out and told us the The Blanks "would not be signing autographs this evening" as they had a very early start the next day. This caused a slight stir, until he continued with "so it's photos only today guys, sorry". I'm not sure how much longer signing a couple of pictures would take, but they sat around and had photos and a quick chat with everyone who came down and were all really friendly.