Live review: The Drums

O2 Academy – 29th November

Following a recent reshuffle, New Yorkers The Drums arrived in Newcastle a wholly different outfit.

But this took nothing away from their toe-tapping rhythms and catchy choruses, neither of which were sacrificed on a cold night in November. The undisputed indie darlings of 2010 may have surfed the hype to a standstill recently, as the crowd was hardly throbbing. They still attracted a stampede of manically excited teeny boppers however, who sprinted across the academy floor and screamed gleefully throughout.

Support came from brilliantly named History of Apple Pie, who piled on more treble than the human ear should have to endure, and Aussie psych rockers Cloud Control, who, despite awkwardly dedicating a song to a local icon “the Northern Angel”, created a massive and anthemic wall of sound.

The Drums finally took the stage after a dreamy entrance and flamboyant singer Jonathon Pierce whirled around on stage with Morrissey-esque panache to openers ‘What You Were’ and the still weird single ‘Best Friend’. The band have lost none of their sickly sweet retro charm, with fan favourite ‘Forever and Ever Amen’s’ soaring chorus sounding brilliant. New tunes ‘Money’ and ‘How it Ended’ if anything are punchier than their predecessors. If there was a major letdown it was the absence of the band’s most familiar record ‘Let’s Go Surfing’, its infectious fun never matched.

They are not big enough yet to ditch the surfboards so readily, but if anything it was a statement of intent. The Drums could be here to stay.