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Review by Rob.

Music between the lager showers.

This is the users guide to throwing lager at a gig. First queue for six hours for said product. Then, and this is quite important, drink approximately two thirds of said foul brew. This should result in the remaining amount being warm, flat and pretty much undrinkable. It is vital to empty the glass this far as any attempt to throw a fuller one will result in some or all of the contents emptying on both yourself and your immediate neighbours making you quite unpopular at best and getting the shit kicked out of you by a big hairy biker at worst. (Its usually somewhere in the middle). Throwing technique involves placing the bottom of the glass in the palm of one's hand and performing a pushing action similar to that of (appropriately) a caber tosser. This kind of action is necessary due to the lack of immediate space. With the glass only one third full, it can be turned into a projectile which flies, oh at least 10 yards further before discharging its contents on the back of a hapless punter who hopefully won't turn round at the moment of launch (especially if he/she is a big hairy biker). Follow all that? Well congratulations you have just pissed off loads of music fans. Now it is a bit of a ritual to throw lager when down the front of a moshpit but soaking people who just want to see the band is not really on. Let's hope and pray that indeed several large bikers did turn around at the right time at this gig, and one consolation for the pillocks doing the throwing is that it is only a decent doc martin kick up the arse from the local A & E department. And don't get me started on other more dubious contents of the glasses, suffice to say if caught the guilty should be made to drink it. Right onto the music.

Support acts for this show are a little disappointing if truth be told. The first band on where competition winners Little Thoughts who were on way to early for me. I also missed The Rascals but was informed that they were strictly average, playing mainly rabble rousing indie to a half empty arena. I did see The Twang and wasn't impressed. Apart from the lead singer they have little stage presence and seem unsure whether they want to be an indie band or a Streets esque dance act. Tunes are also a problem and they didn't play anything that made me sit up and listen. Despite all this it must be said most of the crowd seemed to like them, one member of the audience even getting his knob out. The mosh pit down the front seemed to enjoy it too (the band not the knob). Oh well, no accounting for taste.

Tonight's headliners cannot really lose. Since early 2006 The Pigeon Detective's stock has risen steadily and nowhere has this been more pronounced than in their home city. By summer 2006 they were filling 1000+ capacity venues and filling the column inches of local newspapers and fanzines. The release of debut album 'Wait for Me' last year, pushed them out to a national audience, as did seminal live shows at Glastonbury and the Carling Festivals. It is not difficult to see why they have become so popular, with one pinch of football terrace friendly rock, some killer melodies and a manic live show, putting them in roughly the same bracket as The Cribs, Hives and Fratellis. Live they are one of those bands that the audience just loves to holler the choruses of their songs straight back to them. This happens straight away tonight with opener 'This is an Emergency' the lead single off second album, 'Emergency', and its clear that most of the audience have got hold of it (It has been available for download for a couple of weeks). They follow this with a selection of tunes from the debut LP and its nice to reflect just how many decent tunes there are on it. One chap near us celebrates this fact by climbing onto the roof of a parked juggernaut and surprisingly does not fall off.

New stuff is aired about halfway through and then they stick to the format of playing a couple of newies and one older song. The new stuff? Well I think its fair to say they have opted for the 'If it's not broken then why try to fix it?' route, as none of them sound like a radical departure, and fans of this stuff need not fear there is no jazz odyssey on the album. One thing that has changed a wee bit is the increase in the use of guitar, and indeed, several tunes feature solos. Perhaps this is just a live thing and the album may be more watered down. To be fair, though they seem to be rehashing the style of the first album one or two tunes seemed to sound pretty good on first listen. They are on for about an hour and 20 minutes which flies by and they end with 'I'm not sorry' and pretty much head straight off (no encore). So overall a good show with a minimum of fucking about and a pretty good taster of what the new album will be like ie. the first album. While this might work for now, they are going to have to change things if and when they get to the difficult 3rd album. Perhaps that Jazz odessy is still on the cards.

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