Razorlight

With one hit single, a (cult) celebrity girlfriend and a thousand column inches containing his every word as gospel-like manuscript, life right now couldn’t get much sweeter for Johnny Borrell if it tried. So looking around at this grand collection of bedazzled faces waiting for their new poet laureate of scum and sleaze, one may be forgiven for thinking the messiah has risen.

It’s hard to imagine what must be going through Johnny Borrell’s head as he takes the stage to what appears to be some newly adorned congregation of mass worship. It was little over six months ago that Razorlight were playing second fiddle to The Bell-Rays to little more than 50 punters in the same venue, most of whom seemed suitably unimpressed by the London quartet’s apparent sub-Libertines blasé.

Nevertheless, when Borrell and co launch into ‘Rip It Up’, it’s obvious to all and sundry that the dynamics of the band revolve around each of the four individual characters who comprise Razorlight – some achievement considering tonight was only the second ever show newly appointed drummer Andy Burrows has played with the band – and the way guitarist Bjorn Agren and bassist Carl Dalermo almost garrotte each other before the second verse that they’re on a mission to deliver something special that will disperse all the plagiarism accusing cynics once and for all.

Sure, there are moments which bare comparison to heroes both past (check out the similarity between forthcoming single ‘Golden Touch’ and The Cure’s ’10:15 Saturday Night’) and present (‘Bright Lights’ may have been the aforementioned Libs’ ‘Horror Show’ in a different life?) but it’s the ensuing presence of Borrell, both physically hovering over the heads of his adoring throng and lyrically as he implores a cardinal rite of passage “I was looking for YOU…” during the epic finale of ‘In The City’.

Original? No. Self-deprecating? Hardly. Flawless? Not quite… but…

Invigorating? You bet. Encapsulating? Oh yes… Exciting? My jeans are STILL soaked.

And that’s the whole point of Razorlight. The new wave of… familiarity starts here.