大象传媒

It's hipster central at Auntie Annies on Saturday night as the latest indie darlings Chapel Club make their Northern Irish debut. Local lads Furlo are in support, and give a decent enough, if not terribly awe-inspiring performance.

Plenty of influences across the indie spectrum are evident, but they're missing that something to really give them their own identity beyond generic indie band. They definitely have potential - there are riffs in there that aren't a million miles removed from a less jangly Two Door Cinema Club - but they need to be just a little bit tighter, have a tad more stage presence and banter, and a few catchier songs.

And then come Chapel Club. One could be forgiven for dismissing them as a bunch of haircuts and skinny jeans (and indeed, it's hard to imagine a bassist more desperate to be Alex James, including Alex James), but they do have a wee bit more meat on their bones than first impressions might suggest.

Polished and tight, they have that little bit of extra energy to lift their live set above the record, but trouble with the sound for the vocals dogges them all night. That was also a bit of a problem for the support, but lead singer Lewis Bowman's Morrissey-esque voice makes it rather more noticeable and irksome, and it takes a lot of concentration to be able to hear the vocals. It seems to be irritating Bowman a little as well, but he is fairly good natured about it.

They break out the big guns by playing 'Surfacing Up front', which was perhaps a bit of a surprise initially, but it left room for the rest of their set to breathe without the 'when are they gonna play the big single?' anticipation hanging over proceedings. This might have worked a little better had the vocals been clearer and we could actually hear the rest of the set properly, but that didn't seem to be their fault. And to be fair to them, it also leaves enough room to remember that 'O Maybe I' and 'All The Eastern Girls' aren't bad singles at all. The huge radio play for 'Surfacing' could be in danger of giving the impression that Chapel Club are a one trick pony, but they definitely have a good bit more going on than that.

The sound problem aside, it's a fairly agreeable gig. They may not be setting the world on fire with originality, but they're more than decent at what they do, and the crowd seemed to be happy with it. It would be interesting to see them without the sound issues to see what (if any) difference it would make, but overall it was a solid B+ performance: not amazing, but perfectly fine.

Orla Graham