Exhaustingly Invigorating
Watching the Pigeon Detectives is exhausting. From the moment his feet touch the stage singer Matt Bowman doesn’t stand still, jumping from one side of the stage to the other, constantly whirling his mic round like a helicopter blade he alone is enough to leave you in a crumpled heap begging for some rest. Add to this a list of tracks bulging with hook filled goodness that stamp and stomp with infectiousness akin to the common cold and you start to wonder why the Rothwell quintet don’t come with a obligatory health warning.
Pogoing recklessly across the stage like a rabbit on speed, Bowman snares your attention with effortless ease, swinging the mic lasso style for all to dodge and energetically leaping off the drum kit in time to the music he bounds around belting out the Pigeon Detectives brand of indie fuelled rock that unapologetically lodges its way in your brain and forces your feet to tap along. ‘I Found Out’ instantly has the crowd bouncing enthusiastically along, shouting out the call and response chorus whilst the Strokes-esque guitar grind of ‘Romantic Type’ shows all that this band is more than just catchy gimmicks. Indeed, with their cocksure swagger and gang vibe, Pigeon Detectives radiate an indie rock mentality and when you couple this with songs about raging hormones, lust fuelled escapades, nights out on the town and chasing girls you have the perfect concoction for a rock band. Thankfully though this is a band above arrogance with their edgy Northern charm adhering them to all curtsey of Bowman’s cheeky banter with the crowd revealing the details of his broken mic right down to how everyone from your gran to your mum could benefit from their album as a Christmas present. Sure, they may have contagiously wit addled songs at their disposal and an inexhaustible energy reserve but they still know how to connect with the crowd and as Bowman bounds into the final track, ‘I’m Not Sorry’ like a firework on Bonfire night, it is a shattered but highly entertained and thrilled crowd that try courageously to keep up with the curly haired front man.
Tonight Pigeon Detectives were merely a support act and whilst the growth of the Kaiser Chiefs has them as top billing for this Earls Court show, on the night it could have so easily been their feathered brethren that stole the thunder from their Leeds pals.