All in All

Hottest ticket in town last night was for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at ULU; of course we had tickets and were expectant.

Well, firstly a little bitterness on my part, when I bought the tickets it was (a) their first London gig, and (b) at the infinitely better 100 Club. But, due to unprecedented demand they (a) upgraded to the not so good but nonetheless bigger ULU, and (b) did a warm up gig at the tiny Metro.

Were they worth the hype? Well, sort of I guess. Musically they are great and the songs were just as good as they are on the cd, but as a live act they need work. The Guardian review of their Metro show commented that regardless of the quality of the songs they have no stage presence or charisma. Obviously hurt by this they made an effort last night but a load of confetti-filled helium balloons eventually popped by the support act and some jumping about by the non-lead singers really isn't enough. The band hang on the front man who was either scared stiff, or just charisma free.

They will be back in February and we'll probably see them again, but unless they put on a show, I'd rather stay in in the warm and listen to the cd.

Although one shouldn't make comparisons, we saw Sons and Daughters on Monday and the Decemberists last Thursday and both of them just totally blew me away.