CityLife

Must see: The XX

There are some gigs that this little weekly information exchange between us and you can help you get into, but there are others that you just have to hear about as soon as the tickets go on sale.

Case in point this week: The XX at the Academy 2 – a not immodest venue for a band to chose at this stage in their career (i.e. six months post-album release), but an entirely insufficient one for a band hoisted weekly onto higher and higher pedestals by a gushing music press.

There's obvious shades of The Cure, Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star and The Kills informing their music, and comparisons to be drawn with the whispery trip-hop of 1990s band Ruby and the durgy post-punk of The Jesus and Mary Chain. Their second single, Basic Space, is essentially where Shelleyan Orphan meets Har Mar Superstar...

Eclecticism is something they're not afraid of, for sure. But what's made them so special is their ability to tie all those influences up into the the neatest, sweetest pop tunes delivered in the most endearing whispers by Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft.

Which is all just rubbing in the fact that if your name's not down you're not coming in. Take heart, though, because the band host their official aftershow in Fallowfield, where Jamie Smith will be putting in the hours with a DJ set.

One out of three XX's is better than none...

Academy 2 - March 6, 2010 - SOLD OUT.
Jamie Smith's DJ Set is at The Corner, Wilmslow Rd, Fallowfield, £4.