Yahoo! Music Review

Gig played on 23/01/09

The hirsute and heavily perspiring figure of Fight Like Apes keyboardist Pockets is off stomping again like a spoiled child. His stamping feet move in ever widening circles as he moves past bassist Tom, beyond the drum kit and back in time to shout into the mic at his keyboards before heading off once more pausing only to throw a cartwheel. For a well-proportioned chap such as this - we're talking Romeo Stoddard's long lost brother here - this is no mean feat but then again he's got to do something as singer and fellow keyboardist and singer MayKay has left her centrestage post to whip up the crowd at the barriers.

Fight Like Apes may well be part of the new breed of synth-inspired rockers but their delivery is as obnoxious as it comes. Presenting the face of confrontation with its tongue firmly in its cheek, the Irish quartet may well prove to be the perfect foil when they get round to supporting The Prodigy later this year but right now there are more important matters to hand.

They are nothing if not a precarious balancing act. The petulance at the heart of their truncated show veers from the endearing - MayKay exhorting the balcony's gaggle of the merely curious or her ability to scale PA stacks with nary a concern for her own safety - to the downright irritating, thanks to Pockets' habitual insistence of playing the "I'm-bonkers-me" card. As exemplified by the increasing tension at the core of new single, "Tie Me Up In Jackets", Fight Like Apes tread a fine line that sees them straddling a pop nous with a snotty attitude.

Within seconds of "You Are The Hat" hurtling from the traps, MayKay is almost daring the audience to ignore her and with "Jake Summers" not far behind, she dives into the mosh-pit and eager outstretched arms. And yet and yet…despite the high energy levels, the keyboard swells and the beats that pound through, the feeling remains that Fight Like Apes will need more than charm alone to go the distance.

Their frenetic version of digitised-punk is seriously under threat from within as the continued reliance on Pockets' whacky persona soon begins to wear thin as the dreaded spectre of The Automatic is invoked. Shouty pop is one thing but over-familiarity soon breeds contempt and the danger of Fight Like Apes painting themselves into a huffy corner remains very real indeed.

by Julian Marszalek