Flicking through Bombay Bicycle Club’s (BBC) plain but friendly website earlier in the day, it’s easy to be impressed by the tender yet raucous array of tracks beaming from the home page, particularly for a band only just out of school. Jack Steadman’s vocals echo that of a young Brian Malko, whilst the stop-start guitar antics of the rest of the band, draw comparisons with The Strokes and even Pavement.

Searching for a boiling point

And on the night, as the fresh-faced teenagers play to the jail-bait muddle crammed inside an upstairs room in former Methodist church, turned garishly daubed indie-club known as ‘The Sanctuary’, their already distinctive quiet/loud dichotomy simmers a likeable set along at this Levi’s Ones to Watch gig.

Yet simmer is the correct word, for despite a clutch of likeable, tight tracks on record, tonight’s gig just feels a tad undercooked. The young band clearly have talent, but the blistering energy of support act Flashgun is never truly matched by the headliners, with the melodic, raucous frenzy on stage never quite spilling over (that’s enough cooking analogies). It all feels a bit detached.

Patience is a virtue

Which is a shame, because as much as I want to love and get excited by BBC, the gig struggles to really excite, as the baying crowd wait patiently for a killer track to grab us all by the collective gonads and scream ‘DANCE BITCH’, but it sadly never comes, effectively relegating a capable live set to the level of musical muesli; good for you, but extraordinary hard work.

Words: Dave Allen

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