Heart of Noise

The Kids Love Lies gig on Thursday felt a bit like crashing an office party. A damn good band compared to the usual dodgy entertainment, true. But it seemed like most of the people there were mates with the band and had popped down to The Rest is Noise after work, suits and chunky belted dresses still intact.

This was the first gig the band had played with new drummer Will, and they were as tight as ever, delivering their pop-punk gems Count in my Head and Under the Bed with gusto. Singer Ellen Murphy has definitely listened to a bit of Sleater Kinney in her time and takes the no-nonsense LDN attitude of her forbearers Kate Nash and Lily Allen, to a much more energetic, hyper level. But although Kids Love Lies aren’t your standard pop band, the five-piece are way too mainstream to be punk. There’s the handclaps for a start and too much noise going on in the middle to get that sparse, riot grrrl sound proper. They reminded me more of Panic at the Disco crossed with Marina and the Diamonds, than the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who are claimed to be one of their influences.

The set finished with Stars, the single from their new EP, which I didn’t think was one of their best. The friend I was at the gig with, who’s been in a fair few bands in his time, said he wasn’t surprised - a lot of musicians think that the song they love playing, which is often quite cheesy, is their best song, when it actually bores the audience to tears.

Murphy is undoubtedly a great performer elegantly bouncing around the stage and without her confidence and charisma, it would be a fairly standard, boring show. But there’s a lot of love for pop-with-attitude bands on the edgy side of mainstream, and I can see the up and coming, teeny bopping Skins generation phoning up to request them on Radio 1. And (personal opinion aside, ahem) that’s no bad thing to aspire to.