The Bravery

After a sleepless night last night (not added by a bit of dodgy pizza - hmmmm must check if P&S also suffered), I'm not exactly full of energy for this evenings gig. To be honest I'm just impressed that I even remembered it had been put back to tonight and moved to a bigger venue (pah! and when I had been so pleased to get tickets for the smaller gig that sold out almost instantly!).

I decide to leave it fairly late, miss some if not all of the supports and just make it for the main act The Bravery.

Of course I should have factored in that for a one-band album the set is likely to be pretty short (under an hour including encore) and hence I arrive a not earlier than I need have.

It does mean I catch most of Mando Diao's set, which is pretty good - although rather too many songs involving screaming yeah! yeah! yeah! down the mic. After all a good dose of howling aggression is always a good sign in a rock band, but too much salt can spoil the broth.

The Bravery's set is as one would expect from the album, generally good, but coming only fully alive for a handful of songs. Fearless and Honest Mistake predictably enough get a massive upsurge in response from the audience. I guess it's always a sign that your song's a success when you can leave most of it to the audience to sing for themselves.

With their style dial firmly set on the early 80's posing and attitude rank high in the band's lexicon of tricks. Sam Endicott is a charismatic frontman. And let's face it - a bit of a sort, which is no substitute for good music, but is always a welcome addition.

The new material is encouraging, but they're going to need some more heavyweight tunes if they're going to move on from 'hotly tipped' to 'best new band'.