It's easy to be a snob about radio friendly chart acts like The Thrills. When it comes to music, however, it pays to be a snob - especially if you're a music journalist. So here goes.
On paper all looks well. This is a band that wear their musical inspirations proudly on their sleeve, and a very fine and fashionable sleeve it is too: The Byrds, Beach Boys, The Monkees... Though these are hardly the most original influences a band have ever cited, they are without doubt some of the best. The acid test, of course, is what a band do with those influences. Suffice to say, in The Thrill's case, it's not very much and it's when performing live that this is most evident.
The band bound on stage to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller', which in a way sets the tone for the evening (although sadly not in the way the song's title might suggest). This is the first of many twee and heavy-handed pop cultural references. Later we're treated to stills from 'Magnolia' and 'The Virgin Suicides', as well as to a bitter admission that fifty per cent of Big Sur's publishing has been snaffled by the writers of the immortal 'hey, hey we're the Monkees' line. All of which suggests that in Thrills world, it's what you like, not what you are like that matters.
Which, in a way, is fair enough. It's safe to say that tonight's crowd, most of whom seem comprehensively pissed after a celebratory afternoon in front of the football, aren't here for subtle musical nuance: an evening with the Vienna Philharmonic this is not. In this sense The Thrills heartily deliver the goods, brashly belting out hit after scorching hit. The pissed-up masses and the Royal Variety style velvet curtain backdrop lend a distinct office party air to the evening. One half expects the band to strike up a version of 'Hi Ho Silver Lining' and have done with it.
This sledgehammer approach to their live performance would hardly be worth remarking on if it wasn't for the inescapable sense that The Thrills could be so much more. It's undeniable that frontman Conor Deasy has a sharp ear for an infectious tune, and sometimes the band can muster a sound to match - the dizzying, swirling organ of 'One Horse Town', being a case in point.
Too often though, the band churn out bog standard arrangements tinged with a definite air of 'will this do??'. Well, yes, it will if you're content with drunken karaoke, but frankly, if you're setting yourselves up as the musical heir of The Byrds and the Beach Boys, the answer is a definite 'no'.
