The I-Tunes festival is yet another set of heavily sponsored gigs that, while it serves a commercial purpose, brings some interesting and sometimes mega acts into small venues like the ICA, a near neighbor to Her Majesty on The Mall. This night was opened by the ambassadors of Indie Pop; one enormous ego and a bunch of musogeeks, The Pigeon Detectives.
Matt, the lead singer comes on stage with all the self belief of a 20 year veteran and immediately starts ‘sharing’ with his close up audience. Not just his words, music and emotions but his half masticated banana and his swilled mineral water. Nice. The tunes are familiar, even if you have never heard them before - they comprise simple melodic ebbs and flows and massively hooky choruses and are delivered by a very cheeky chappy. If George Formby had picked up a Gibson 355 instead of a Ukulele and been born many decades later, he may have ended up sounding like this. But this is not meant as an insult – quite the opposite. For those that want accessible, good time indie, these boys are on the money. Their songs are full of youthful observation and a good helping of optimism. They even elude to a bit of insecurity which is certainly not something seen in Matt’s performance as he worked the audience and hard earned his free I-Pod. Songs like ‘I’m not sorry’ will be familiar to a generation for sure – but which Indie Pop band sang it for us may well be forgotten as The Pigeon Dectectives are unfortunately, at the moment, not that unique.
Review by : Stephen Izatt
