The Boy Least Likely To

“We’re not a fucking bakery,” claim The Boy Least Likely To after forgetting to bring cakes for the crowd tonight. It’s a shame because if they had been handed around, the band would have been officially entered the Guinness Book of Records as the Tweeest-Thing-Ever™.

Sounding like the cartoon capers of Dexys and British Sea Power as drawn with luminous crayons by ADD children force fed acid for three days and nights, it becomes impossible not to enter their bright, animated world. The impossibly syrupy ‘Paper Cuts’ is akin to having twelve McFlurrys poured into your ears, while ‘Monsters’ hints at the inevitable Jacko-style sinister side to anything this cutesy.

Naturally, any gig this kitsch is going to annoy almost as many people as it does delight the rest. Matters aren’t helped at first; the gig only takes off three songs in when vocalist Jof decides to actually allow his voice to join him at centre stage. Although the brainchild of just two members of the band, the six-piece band onstage initially drown out the fey vocals which at first feel painfully similar to unimpassioned tones of him-what’s-in-the-Thrills.

However, the clues are all in the first song ‘Be Gentle With Me’ - given a little time the band not so much warm your heart, as melt it into submission with a flame-thrower. ‘My Tiger My Heart’ is a joyous tale of animal love, which somehow manages to escape any thoughts of bestiality, and is symptomatic of a live band which will get your inner child’s own inner child jumping up and down excitedly.

With their recorder solos, synchronized hand claps and a bubble-machine finale, cynicism towards The Boy Least Likely To live would be akin to kicking a small puppy in the face. Twice. On his birthday. Let them eat cake, damn it.