Gig played on 24/10/05

Apparently, there's "nothing but green lights from here". So says Tom Vek on his pouting, irrepressible new single, a year since the knowing whispers of critics and fruit machine eyes of A&R men fused to snare this precocious talent. Twelve months on, the song in question, "Nothing But Green Lights", has been dismissed in the press for its supposed similarities to the imperious Talking Heads track "Once In A Lifetime". Ignoring Vek's impeccable taste, it makes a change from the infinitely more lame comparisons with Beck Hanson.

Some ten years ago, the wildly gifted, cartoon beautiful and knockout sonic pin-up for the slacker headspace emerged firing futuristic rock'n'roll bullets from the hip like Johnny Cash rewired for a new generation. "Loser", "Beer Can" and the cutely titled "MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack" served notice of a radical new force whose talents now seem so expansive as to allow him to frequently forget which ones actually count. Tom Vek, meanwhile, is some distance from being even 50 per cent as good as Beck was at the same stage in his career.

That's not to say Vek's youthful veracity is located purely in his fearless personality and the eager crowd tonight hoping to witness something special. Vek, who you may know, PLAYED ALL THE INTRUMENTS on debut LP "We Have Sound", has a string of bolting, thrilling tunes. "On The Road" strips away the vague, jazzy opening sprawl to become a rampant, psychedelic mantra, while "A Little Word In Your Ear" pulls a disarmingly simple chorus tug. Elsewhere, we're all but floored by "Music Television", as Vek stands alone amid a mass of noise and interference shifting from speaker to speaker. It is only here when the dashing, provocative idea of Tom Vek actually strikes lightning.

Elsewhere, there are periods where we definitely do not have sound, only smoking speaker cones leaking nonsense. Some of Vek's lyrics are excruciatingly meaningless. "On The Road" suggests he's been dropping brain-dismantling drugs yet to make it to Brighton, referring to an intriguing moment in his life when "I was the glove compartment". Vek also appears more at home with a bass strapped to his back than a guitar and, consequently, while he understands rhythms, terrifying 'funk grooves' and dance structures, is less well endowed when it comes to the profound importance of tunes.

Not that we have such problems with the unstoppable, euphoric and crashing straight through the f*cking ceiling closer "I Aint Saying My Goodbyes", where the truest confession of the night is spilt - "There is still so much to see, there is still much to do, I can't be more than half way through." Admittedly, you'd have to be a loser not to pay attention to where Tom Vek heads next.

by Ben Gilbert