ARTICLE BY CHERYL CHENG
PHOTOS BY LESLIE KALOHI
SEPT. 13 | SILVERLAKE—A friend of mine has a theory that people only have so much capacity for new music. At a certain point, things start to all sound the same, which could explain why older folks often think current music is garbage and reminisce, “Back in my day…” But is such a theory really true? Is it about an inability to absorb new music, or is it really simple boredom? Such thoughts were on my mind tonight when I went to Spaceland to see Leeds band The Pigeon Detectives, who are currently riding the wave of popularity among the British press. The <emNME loves them. BBC DJ Steve Lamacq praises them. It’s all really quite convincing.
The thing is, I think I may have heard this band before in other incarnations. The Pigeon Detectives is an indie/pop punk band (The Cribs) with a cute, animal-related name (The Wombats) from the U.K. (the aforementioned and so many others). But the band is known for their live performance, and despite how generic the MySpace tunes sounded to me, I was curious to see if tonight would change my mind.
Upon watching The Pigeon Detectives live, the best thing about them, without a doubt, is lead singer Matt Bowman. He looks like a young Roger Daltrey and is a showman in the best sense. Despite being little known here stateside, Bowman adopts a rock star attitude. He constantly pours water over his head and spits it in the air (seriously, there were a lot of water bottles on stage), while also kicking in the air and jumping off the drum kit. The performance isn’t obnoxious, but somewhat endearing (think Pelle Almqvist of The Hives).
Before the set’s second song, the band indulged in an instrumental rock number. I want you to wait for it, Bowman explains. Was it worth it? The crowd’s cheers affirm it was. Most notable, this little-known U.K. band was able to get their fans to dance and clap along. In fact, Bowman is a big advocate of audience participation. He encouraged fans to clap with their hands in the air and even brought a female fan on stage to serenade her.
But besides the distraction of Bowman, the music itself was still lacking. “Everybody Wants Me” is nice enough, featuring an especially repetitive chorus, and “Keep On Your Dress” has a little call-and-response bit that is fun when performed live. But for all the niceties, The Pigeon Detectives lack much originality. Their music is capable and catchy but standard. Perhaps I have heard too many bands just like them. Or perhaps I am just getting old. I hope it’s the former.
For more photos of this show, visit The Scenestar photo gallery.
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