The Courteeners
The Courteeners
With support from Educated Animals
Monto Water Rats, London
Wednesday 24 October 2007
By Richard Berry
The Courteeners' appearance at Monto Water Rats, London on Wednesday night was their first London gig since the hype surrounding this band went into overdrive following the release of their first single. It is safe to say they could have sold out this tiny venue several times over and, judging from the number of people crammed into the place, I think they did.
Fire safety concerns aside, this was a commanding performance from a band confident of their imminent rise to stardom. With strong support beforehand from the Educated Animals, The Courteeners delighted a crowd divided equally between members of an ultra-loyal singalong following and a new crowd drawn in by forwarded emails and MySpace links.
The obligatory reference to make about The Courteeners is about how they are bringing a Mancunian swagger back to the indie scene. Liam Fray certainly does not disappoint in this regard, but that is hardly enough on which to build a career. Besides, Reverend and the Makers' Jon McClure has beaten him to it, despite hailing from the other side of the Pennines.
Luckily for Fray, he has more than enough raw songwriting talent to offer the world a more rounded act. Songs like Kimberley, No You Didn't No You Don't and first single Cavorting, are clever, catchy and immense fun, and they hit the spot on the night here almost perfectly. His music is not quite what you would call innovative (not yet anyway), but it is a million miles from formulaic.
Only when acting up the parochial Mancunianism is Fray lyrically weak, for instance ordering others to 'please vacate this city of mine' in new single Acrylic. It's a line that thrilled the smallish throng in the mosh pit, but, unlike the Arctic Monkeys' celebration of hometown life in A Certain Romance, the wider appeal of this approach may be limited.
[none]They may have started the gig looking a little the worse for wear, having played an earlier acoustic gig at another venue, but it wasn't long before they found their rhythm. The charisma in the act all comes from Fray, and as a singer he is amongst the best out there. His band stay in the background but they can definitely play, and there was plenty of opportunity to display their talents in an energetic, unrelenting set.
One of the interesting things about this band is an obsession with singing about the music industry, usually the preserve of second-album offerings. Manchester natives will know just how long this band lumbered with the 'next big thing' label, and perhaps the pressure of this lays heavily on them.
Among those whom Fray comments on are the bedroom-bound music lovers who follow bands only on the Internet in What Took You So Long, the 'plasticine' bands who ape The Libertines in Acrylic (hopefully this is ironic given their own similarities), and the fans desperate to possess the 'limited edition seven inch' who Fray predicts will fall away when The Courteeners lose their underground status in Fallowfield Hillbilly.
The set reached its climax with the powerful rendition of anthem What Took You So Long. This is truly a unique song, that no other band could sing, and one that the NME have described as a future number one. Instantly accessible, but bitingly funny and with layers of depth, it would be no surprise to see that prediction - and every other being made about this band - coming true in the very near future.
For more details about The Courteeners, including their forthcoming UK tour dates, see their page here on Ents24.
