The Drums

Fresh from the recent NME Awards Tour, this bunch have clearly either bought themselves a one-way ticket to ignominious obscurity or they’ll be one of the biggest bands in the nation by this time next year. Whichever way it goes, though, plain old good quality means that The Drums’ career doesn’t deserve to end here.

It’s not entirely heartening to see such a modest crowd turning out for such a touted, Moshi Moshi-signed band, but the enthusiasm on display helped make up for it. Of course, applying the law of diminishing marginal returns to the medium of four handsome boys with guitars (from Brooklyn, in this case), no-one is original these days. Still, this lot use their influences so impeccably it’s hard not to warm to them.

Singer Jonathan Pierce is as feyly cheerful as Robert Smith on ‘It Will All End In Tears’ and ‘Submarine’; as wounded as Ian Curtis on the lovely ‘Down By the Water’; and he dances as if he were a member of Flowered Up during ‘Best Friend’.

In other words, If UK indie of the 80s is your thing, then this is your band.