Live: LITTLE COMETS 10/4/13

Little Comets are a northern indie rock trio with a string of small hits. As their name suggests, they are a pretty inoffensive band: perhaps not the most exciting musically or experimentally, but with a decent repertoire of songs to play when it comes to live shows. It was with this knowledge that I went to see them at London’s o2 Academy in Shepherd’s Bush.

The band started out well, beginning their set with ‘Tricolor’ and ‘Tense/Empty’, songs which proved their musical capabilities, with interesting melodies sing-along lyrics which the crowd fully seemed to appreciate. The set then went into more dance-oriented tunes, which seemed to be fully appreciated by the young teenagers at the front, who managed to create a large albeit tentative moshpit.

By the time the Comets had reached their seventh song, however, ‘Waiting in the Shadows in the Dead of Night’, there was a distinct sense of apathy which descended on the room. At this point, many of their songs did sound to start distinctly similar, the excited denim-shirt clad teenagers at the front started to calm down and a man managed to vomit most of his stomach contents onto the middle of the venue floor, leaving the rest of the gig with a slightly bitter scent. Quite literally.

Despite this, the band dedicated one of their songs, ‘Bridge Burn’, to a fan who had recently passed away, which was a particularly heart-warming moment for the crowd and restored one’s faith in the humanity of bands, who it can sometimes feel simply see their gigs as a means to earn some money.

To some extent, the band managed to claw back the excitement they had roused at first with perhaps their best (and most well-known) track, ‘Dancing Song’, a traditional belting indie romp which managed to get everyone dancing. However, overall the night had a distinctly apathetic feel, which not even the kookily arranged percussive instruments hanging from the stage ceiling or the explosively voluminous hair of the bassist could resolve.