Saturday 03/03/07 The Pigeon Detectives @ FROG, Mean Fiddler, London

Thing about The Pigeon Detectives is there’s nowt original about them; even their crowd whipping is typical of many bands of northern climes. But crowd lash they do and front man Matt’s habit of mentioning God’s county at any given opportunity is going down like an offer to spend the aftershow with his gorgeous bass player (he’s called Dave, and is he available? I’m waiting for my own detectives to report back).

The Leeds five-piece’s live appearances are becoming rather legendary on the schmindie circuit. Rocking up six minutes after their pencilled one in the a.m. start, the Detectives spring on stage and within minutes, Matt’s darting about like he’s got a firecracker up his arse. As if there really are flames to extinguish, he douses the crowd twice with bottled water in as many minutes; hmm, brat or twat?

Tossing away single ‘I Found Out’ very early in the set gets the Camden Market vs Selfridges-clad throng storming along to this take on rousing rock for the just bin dumped, chanting back the singalong refrain “Going out with / Yes she’s going out with” with all the boisterousness of the singer; the other four look in contrast rather nonplussed. Tis all spiffing fun but it’s also same old, same old…

With a set closing stage dive, somewhat overplayed for a 25 minute gig, Matt’s crazy delivery makes an otherwise average indie rock get up – whose songs are even of the same theme: ex-girlfriends – look as if it’s the next biggest thing. Don’t be fooled.