Not convinced? Well here’s proof enough: the ticking clock counting down to their appearance (‘The Final Countdown’, anyone?), the elaborately rehearsed entrances and mobile phones-aloft spot-lit ballads. How about the ‘authentic’ soul backing group for ‘Golden Touch’? They’re ‘Hot City Nights Vol. 2’ right down to their drainpipe jeans tucked into white socks ‘n’ sneakers. But above all that, it’s just the way they try so fucking hard to please.
Just look at their performance of ‘In the City’: the band breaks it down to a portent-heavy bass/drums throb… Johnny Borrell demands that everyone stops making any noise… “Stop clapping, stop laughing!” he implores, deadpan… the audience are silenced… they’re in the palm of his hand, waiting for his signal, then… Pow! The riffs drop and the crowd surges forward for a touch of their enigmatic hero. I mean, Bon Jovi or what?
Yeah, they’ve got that crowd-pleasing stuff down to a fine art. Funny really, because Borrell is a singer/songwriter locked in a frontman’s body, every heavy intonation and breathless whisper practised at countless acoustic support slots in crumby shitholes. It’s done the trick – he’s got tonight’s largely mid-teen audience by the knackers, most notably on the anthemic ‘Vice’ and the scintillating new ska number ‘Keep The Right Profile’. ‘Up All Night’ sounds thin and reedy, but it does on the album as well, so you can’t really complain. All this and two of the stiffest male nips in indie rock. Crazy, crazy, crazy nights…
Matt Cartmell