On first glance Spector and Citizens! appeared to have been cut from the same cloth – both were five-pieces mixing synths and guitars, and each had frontmen unencumbered by instruments so they could interact with the audience.
Fittingly on this occasion both were also fighting with a fairly murky sound mix, which meant the vocalists battled to be heard.
But where Spector won out over the band lower on the bill was their combination of a definite look and presentation style, with a range of songs and hooks that could come from several different bands.
Most of the time Citizens!, with their combination of funky guitars and synth lines, felt more like a Franz Ferdinand tribute.
Spector’s frontman Fred Macpherson is perfect rock star material – his round black nerdy specs and slicked back hair (which he carefully combed back on more than one occasion) make him both a caricature and a style icon.
With his self-effacing introduction, “We’re doing our bit to ruin your Friday night over the next half-hour”, this is a band that doesn’t appear to take itself too seriously – even getting the crowd to rate their night halfway through.
But with songs such as the energetic Chevy Thunder, the anthemic clap-along Never Fade Away, the doomed romance-noir of Lay Low and the bass-heavy epic Celestine, they also have the chops to carry it off.
While Citizens! don’t quite have that edge to take them over the top yet, this won’t be the last we hear of Spector.
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