Wearing jackets and boots, the crowds that flocked to Rishon Lezion's Live Park Tuesday night probably would not have guessed that American pop icons OneRepublic — who are well-known for their summer hits — would perform in Israel on the very first day of winter. And even though weather forecasts said it will rain that night, luckily, the skies remained mostly clear with a slight breeze blowing throughout the show.
Some concerts rely on the exceptional talent of the musical act. Others on the bravado of performers in the limelight. When you see them live, OneRepublic does neither. Rather, it gives off a more pleasant and uplifting "driving music" vibe. The kind that people hum or sing along to with some light finger "drumming" on the steering wheel. Still, at some point, you feel the need to switch stations.
OneRepublic perform Stop & Stare live at Rishon Lezion Live Park
(Video: Asaf Magal)
When it comes to a band that has been accepted into the heart of the mainstream and whose music is widely played on the radio, there's this hunger to see something different and unexpected. A kind of encounter between the band and the fans that will stay in people's hearts long after they manage to squeeze themselves out of Rishon Lezion's heavy traffic.
Leading the band is Ryan Tedder — its charismatic lead singer who is responsible for a laundry list of catchy tunes that are too easy to sing along to — but the tight performance seemed at times too artificial to completely enthrall the Israeli radio-loving audience.
The was felt right off the bat, as video clips of the California sun shining over a skatepark in Santa Monica played in the background while Tedder strangely clad himself in a long, black coat. Shortly after, the disconnect dawned on him, he took it off.
The third song on the set was one of their most beloved hits, Stop and Stare. Ryan seemingly controlled the show. After all, he is an excellent vocalist whose technical control of both his highs and lows is outstanding. He writes well and cracks the formula for all of his songs, but the performance sorely missed one crucial element - emotion.
That said, they received a roaring round of applause as they skipped from song to song. From the more optimistic-sounding Good Life to the bleak Secrets and a few other lesser-known tunes. At the end of Love Runs Out, Tedder actually stood on the narrow piano. A stunt that could've gone horribly wrong. Other band members did their best to put themselves forward with solid performances on the violin and cello, though Tedder was the obvious star.
As opposed to his last visit to Israel seven years ago, this time Tedder spoke about his other talent — writing hits for other artists. He spoke of Beyonce's Halo, Leona Lewis's Bleeding Love, Ellie Goulding's Burn and a few others. On the Piano, he stripped them off all the extra layers that studios mount on them, and just as we hoped for something different — he casually burned through them like an underwhelming audition in a singing competition. Not because he can't sing. Because he lacks truth.
It's hard to keep things fresh when you're a band that has been consistently packing playlists with hits for the past 15 years, but when your studio recordings come off as identical to your live performances, the crowd demands more than just your celebrity presence, even if you throw a couple of lines in Hebrew every now and there.
In their song Apologize, Tedder tried turning the audience into one giant choir by giving, rather arbitrarily, four diverse voices to choose from. That would have been nice, but the execution was disappointing. The tired crowd simply got lost in the tune and sounded flat.
The weather stayed pretty constant and rain-free skies kept everyone dry. Unfortunately for the band, so was the atmosphere. The "magic" people were hoping for remained a distant dream. Tedder promised the audience he would come back and even offered them to catch another concert abroad. However, I doubt this would become a trend.
OneRepublic's attempt to become what Coldplay did for the Israeli audience was quite naive. The most people would walk for them is from their cars to the show through the muddy Rishon Lezion ground. And between us, even that is a bit too much.