“We've played thirty shows on this tour”, says Pigeon Detectives' lead singer, Matthew Bowman, addressing a frantically oscillating mosh pit at the end of their penultimate gig at London's Kentish Town Forum, “and this has been the best one so far”. Whether or not this was the booze/adrenaline/desire-to-please-a-frantically-oscillating-mosh-pit talking, the Pigeon Detectives certainly left their London crowd sweaty, excited and – due, in part, to their lack of an encore – gagging for more.
The Leeds group opened with the crowd-pleasing early single, 'Found Out' (a song so catchy, you would have to punch yourself unconscious in order to stop singing along), and kept the Forum shoving each other about good-naturedly as they knocked out other similarly raucous favourites, such as 'You Know I Love You' and 'I'm Not Sorry', relatively early on in the set. Towards the end of the gig, the band introduced a brand new track, and, in understanding that their audience would not be immediately enamoured with it, displayed a maturity rarely seen in rock music (or, indeed, any other genre). As Bowman claimed, “you may not be as into this one as you are our older stuff, but if you could sing along by the final chorus, that would be great”. And you know what? A few people did.
Putting aside the quality and energy of their songs, the main reason that the Pigeon Detectives are so exciting live lies exclusively with their lead singer, Matthew Bowman. Just as James Blunt has endeavoured to embody everything that a word rhyming with his surname represents, so Bowman is a Showman of magnificent proportions. There is no room here for the sarcastic strutting and stroppy shoegazing peddled by so many current British indie bands (not least the Pigeons' support acts this evening). Bowman really is everything that a frontman should be: at ease, enjoying himself, putting his all into every single song, jumping about like there is something genuinely wrong with him, and pretty much impossible to stop watching.
While the Pigeon Detectives' songs work well enough in your bedroom or through your headphones as you pound the streets, the group make the most sense live. Their songs are relentlessly enjoyable; packed with energy, emotion and entertainment value, and – most importantly, within a genre notorious for on-stage moodiness – they really know how to put on a good show.
Words:
Tom Ellen
Rating:
4/5
