Saturday 09/06/07 Hadouken! @ Concorde 2, Brighton

So, you turn up for a gig at 8 o clock on a Saturday night feeling quite clever that you have got there pretty early only to realize you’ve totally missed the support band as tonight is one of those ‘Matinee’ performances. Groan. The reason for this soon becomes apparent as Hadouken!’s fan base hold the average age of seven. Tonight the Concorde resembles a kind of debauched youth club – it’s still light outside, there is an abundance of plastic bangles, lollies and yellow smiley earrings and people are still at the age where they can shove total strangers out of the way without getting punched in the face. The crowd is chanting ‘Hadouken! Hadouken!’ and waving their skinny little arms in the air with Hadouken’s logo drawn all up them with marker pen and highlighters.

The band come on, crowd go mad, Hadouken! Lap it up. The synth kicks in which is so beefy you could put it in a burger, this combined with James’ smart alleck, razor sharp lyrics soon transforms the crowd into a sweaty mass of neon bodies. Every now and again there is a casualty and someone stumbles out of the crowd, fluro make up smudged across their faces and pupils as big as saucers. The high points of the evening are obviously ‘Liquid Lives’ and ‘That Boy That Girl’.

The night’s events really get interesting just before the last song of the set when James announces we are all going skinny dipping in the sea, and he’s not joking. He crowd surfs towards the side exit, the entire contents of Concorde 2 follow his lead and leg it to the sea stampeding through children, old ladies and cars on their way in a haze of fluorescent hormones. A few of the braver ones strip off and get in the sea at which point Gigwise makes a hasty exit before it encounters pervert accusations.

Hadouken! Are obnoxious try-hards, but we can’t seem to get enough of them. Is it grime, grindie, rave or hardcore? We don’t give a shit, they are ****ing ace - and the cool kids said so.