CityLife

The Futureheads, The Metros @ Night & Day

22/02/08

IT'S not very often that you are offered a free drink of whiskey on entry to the Night and Day Café, but with Channel 4 in town and one of Britain's best live bands on the bill, tonight is lest a gig and more an attempt at creating an 'event'.

Unfortunately, in order to witness the return of Sunderland's post-punkers The Futureheads, the audience have to endure the elements; not only is the venue - intimate at the best of times - cluttered with cameras, bland, faceless TV presenters and local ageing bass players who, to quote The Futureheads themselves, are old enough to know better, but we also have to tolerate The Metros, possibly the most instantly dislikeable band I have ever seen.

The Metros are the latest in a long line of southern bands that sing in that annoyingly knowing cockney accent and deal in the same line of sub-punk nonsense as all the other Libertines-wannabees.

Singer Saul Adamczewski prances round like the idiot love-child of Rik Witter and The Others' Dominic Masters, except he is even more risible (which I didn't think was possible) and they sing absolutely nothing of note. Horrible.

With third album This is Not the World due later this year, The Futureheads are taking their tentative first steps towards regaining public approval.

Last album News and Tributes bombed terribly despite having several great moments, largely due to the fact it had little of the urgency of their incendiary debut. It meant momentum was lost, and the band has had to create their own record label, Nul records, after being dropped by 679.

Current single The Beginning of the Twist is The Futureheads back to their rollicking best, heightening expectation that the new stuff will be a return to form. Upon hearing the songs for the first time, though, it is difficult to say if this will be the case.

The Girl with the Radio Heart, whilst encouraging, is not a massive departure from News and Tributes, and suffers slightly from a clunky lyric; Hard to Bear is saved by a catchy chorus and title track This Is Not the World is a loud, racy track recalling early Jam at their rawest.

However, forsaking the quality of the new material, when The Futureheads are in top form, as they are tonight, they are fantastic.

The four-way vocal trick they have gives them a dimension many bands of a similar ilk don't possess, and being in such close quarters gives them the ideal environment for their art-punk madness to ensue.

Forceful, vibrant and above all loud, all of the old stuff is played with the vigour in which you come to expect, with Carnival Kids and Skip to the End (still the sound of The Clash actually getting lost in a supermarket) the highlights.

Obviously aware of the fact the cameras were getting packed away half way through, the set is uneven, but the mid-set whammy of Decent Days and Nights, The Beginning of the Twist and, of course, Hounds of Love, which is somehow not the albatross it should be, shows the arsenal of songs The Futureheads have built for themselves, and with any luck This is Not the World will add significantly to that.

Even if it doesn't, the compelling live gigs show no sign of stopping.

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