Wednesday 15/03/06 Dogs @ Kings College, London

Kings College affords a fantastic view of the River Thames at night, yet the student hopefuls offered tonight are anything but. The appalling named Livid and National Snack between them offer a mix of Bloc Party-lite, the biggest flares this side of Madchester and an Arnold Schwarzenegger cut-out. You can feel the taxpayers in the audience wincing.

 

Headliners Dogs suitably look as if they have never picked up a text book in their life, and Johnny Cooke shuffles on stage for a ragged and fraught ‘London Bridge’. Spitting out every word, Cooke stares motionless around the room while his band bounce around the stage behind him. An almost brutal ‘End of an Era’ follows – "get out of my way / I don’t need you any more", but the only questions raised by this is whether people will need Dogs anymore. Cooke’s voice often comes across as a dry cockney twang masqueraded by hate and bile, yet when he delivers – such as the excellent ‘By the River' – Dogs marry angst and melody to a standard comparative with Paul Weller circa-1977.

 

It's unfortunate that much of the Dogs’ set can be filed in the same post-Libertine bracket as Metro Riots, Paddingtons and a hundred other pretenders. They have built up a sturdy and star-studded fanbase – the Modfather included – yet tonight flatter to deceive. Set-closer ‘Tuned to a Different Station’ provides the moment most of the tuition fees crowd have come for, yet whether this Dog will have its day remains to be seen.