Scouting For Girls – Birmingham HMV Institute Library – 19-10-12 With Support From Atticus Anthem and Lilygreen and Maguire

Arriving at the venue after doors open is never a good way to judge the atmosphere of a gig, but it does mean you can get in without long queues, and still catch the first band!

Atticus Anthem, this 4 piece from Nottingham don't have anything to do with the clothing label(as far as I know) and play a rather bland form of indie/pop/rock. They're a group of good looking young lads which mean they go down well tonight as the room is full off young girls. They play a short set and do nothing spectacular, they sound great though, with singer Bjorns wispy vocals flowing smoothly over the harmonic strumming of the guitars. They do what they do well, but they're hardly ground breaking, don't expect them to be the next big thing, just expect them to pass by in the background unless they get a bigger sound. 2.5/5

Lilygreen and Maguire, are normally a 2 piece but tonight are a 4 piece for that full band, live feel. These are much better than the first act and again sound good. They play acoustic pop rock songs, that are very upbeat and have very boy band sounding vocals with high pitched harmonies and the occasional New Kids On The Block ‘oh oh oh oh's’ sounds thrown in for good measure. They do a great job of working the crowd and chatting between songs, it is easy to work this crowd though, as at one point they ask ‘who has Twitter’ and most of the audience loudly screams, they could have said who has Live Journal and have got the same response. They play a nice set including their number 66 UK chart hit called Ain’t Love Crazy along with Falling Out Of Love. They close their set with a covers medley including Price Tag, Mr Brightside, Lazy Song, Someone Like You, Don’t Stop Believing and No Woman No Cry.  They then get the crowd to join in and end lines like “I say Go Go you say Power Rangers” which as I said before, is easy to do tonight as the crowd is up for anything. They do an ace job of warming the crowd up and I can definitely see them getting higher in the charts than 66 in the future as they’re very talented, non-offensive pop, which always goes down well. Speaking off non offensive pop the main band is up now... 3/5

Scouting For Girls come on stage to the Rocky theme to a massive wall of screams. This band knows what it’s doing, as they've been about for many years and have played almost everywhere. Their brand of pop rock is different to most out there which makes them rather accessible and credible at the same time as they play and write their own catchy songs. I am surprised, as I thought they would be rather rubbish, but to my dismay they sound amazingly good, the drums over shadow the vocals at times but for the most part they sound clear and loud. The harmonies are sweet and the keyboards add to their overall sound, which is switched to a grand piano on other songs to make a bigger sound. Singer Roy Stride doesn't stop moving when he's not playing keyboard, he prances about the stage making sure everyone can see him and so he can engage the crowd in the songs.

The stage set up is great as it is lit up with lights across the middle that look like flash bulbs and go off on the beat of the drums in certain songs. The Drums themselves are not centre stage(as is normal at rock shows) and is off to the side, the grand piano takes centre stage, which adds to the atmosphere of the more grand songs.

They play a good set list including, old and new, which gets the crowd singing along throughout. It also allows me to judge the atmosphere now, which is definitely fun and happy as they play mainly love songs and tell the crowd that their the 5^th member of the band and how they need them to sing along, which of course goes down to big screams.  They play songs such as; Heartbeat, Airplane, Rains In LA, and they also play the big hits Elvis Ain’t Dead and end on She’s So Lovely. They also play I Wish I Was James Bond, which they’ve not done for a while, as it’s the 50^th anniversary of Bond. They play for almost an hour and a half, which is really good for most ‘rock’ bands barely play for an hour. They get the crowd very excited, so much so a woman near myself at the bar, takes off her false leg and places it down on the bar as she dances wildly.

People who are normal regular readers of AV might turn their noses up at Scouting For Girls, but I'd definitely recommend them as they know what they’re doing, they interact well with the crowd and they sound awesome.

4/5