Saturday 08/09/07 Rooney @ King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow

As strange sights and sounds go, a group of Scots loudly chanting "Roo-ney, Roo-ney!" ranks up there with the prospect of Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse being presented with an award for their healthy, clean living lifestyles. Yet the fact that the band Rooney share a name England’s great, oft injured footballing hope didn’t deter a fairly busy Tuts crowd from showing their appreciation.

As bands go, Rooney’s output is fairly predictable, the quintet clearly reared on a steady diet of British invasion 60’s pop and various Americana rock monoliths from the 70’s, like Supertramp, with some of the laidback melancholy of the Band in there too. Everything about the band’s look backs this up, from the sunglasses that bassist Matthew Winter sports to the continual stadium rock guitar playing poses that both Taylor Locke and vocalist Robert Carmine feel obliged to showcase. While there may have been a several year gap between the band’s debut effort and their newly released sophomore album ‘Calling The World’, there’s very little that suggests a break from the norm. Rooney may have allegedly worked on over 50 songs prior to ‘Calling The World’s release but it doesn’t appear they spent much time working on new ideas.

Yet sometimes old, reliable ideas work well and Rooney’s comfy slippers brand of rock is at times effective. A stomping ‘Daisy Duke’ represents college American rock nicely, like a more pleasant, less socially awkward cousin of Weezer while the bouncy Britpop of ‘I’m Shakin’ gets some energy going in the crowd. Recent single ‘When Did Your Heart Go Missing’ is nicely hummable, suggesting Rooney are set to challenge the Feeling to a duel for the crown of ‘slightly cheesy yet annoyingly catchy soft rock king’. Although the Los Angeles band’s onstage belief that the year is 1975 and they’re playing stadiums is a tad wearing, there’s no doubting that they’re genuinely enjoying themselves, high fiving fans and joking around throughout.

However, while Rooney are pleasant enough, there are limitations placed on them by the genre of music that they play. The likes of ‘Don’t Come Around Again’ and ’I Should’ve Been After You’ yearn to be arms in the air pop anthems but come up woefully short and are simply dull, while nearly every song’s subject matter revolving round girls leads to a sense of familiarity creeping in the longer the hour long set goes on. Carmine’s voice is adequate but isn’t nearly strong enough to bolster the material to being the booming juggernauts desired and the sheer sameyness in the material means there’s a spark missing, that instead of offering many thrills Rooney are just boring.

There may have a few highlights dotted around but on closer inspection Rooney the band’s music is about as sturdy as Wayne’s currently crocked foot.