The hair’s more Hoxton than Harrow, the accessories are more hand-me-downs than, ahem, Accessorize and the attitude’s revivalistic. Conversation flits in between the rejuvenated Camden Crawl and the night Frog turned one. Looks like the whole of indiedom has descended on Kentish Town to celebrate Frog spawning birthday number three. There’s not a cake in sight so people are chewing Old Virginias. It’s mildy reminiscent of The Scene That Celebrates Itself, so let’s eat a fat riff sandwich.
What a debacle.
Up lollop gangly Scottish art rockers 1990s. On paper at least there’s more credibility than the awkward posturing suggests: they’re former band mates of Alex Kapranos before he found fame creating music to make girls want to pick up guitars and then drop them on deciding they’d rather be groupies. And Rough Trade signed them. And they’re produced by he of equally awkward shyness: former Suede star Bernard Butler.
Right, give us some indie pop perfection then.
They can’t. Under-achievement permeates the entire Forum, and saps the fun out of everyone. There’s the odd rabble-rousing plump guitar line but tis not ‘alf as riotous as The Fratellis. What else is there? 1990s probably should drink more Orange Juice than listen to it.
The chin-stroke (eww!) is noted amongst the seasoned I saw The Smiths types with their overheard remarks thus, “If you wanna name your band after a decade then you’ve picked the wrong one”. Rubbish. Given that
London has more media per capita than any other metropolis, they should eBay off their old 7”s and retreat into the same obscurity their newspapers now reside.
Front man Jackie McKeown notes that a three minute jangly pop tune is not the place to rest one’s woes: at their best they’re all frenzied ‘n’ artsy. And cue best tune ‘You’re Supposed To Be My Friend’, an ironic stab at the turmoil of matehood, that gets the All Stars moving and the pints spilling. The rest washes over like a lukewarm shower.
People have been thinking a lot about Jack Penate, especially during the last few songs of 1990s’ set. In an act of profound stupidity however, he opens with current single ‘Staring At Stars’, and the innit boy goes downhill from there. Why? Is fellow faux-Cockney pal Ms Allen going to appear onstage and throw cucumber sandwiches at the disinterested throng? If she did, would we care?
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