Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah! - 7 July - The Forum, London

With a busy weekend of festivals looming, the timing of Friday’s Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! gig could have been better thought out. The Brooklyn five-piece played their biggest date in London so far, prior to heading to Scotland and Ireland for T in the Park and Oxegen appearances respectively.

The band seem to be conserving their energy, annoyingly, by shuffling aimlessly on stage at half past nine and carrying out their sound check in front of us as their opening number. The boys have a blistering eponymous debut album to show off, but they’re going to make us work for it – by testing our patience.

‘Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away’ opens proceedings and, despite an enthusiastic response from the audience, the band aren’t biting yet. It’s not until they play ‘Is This Love?’ 20 minutes later, followed by the euphoric ‘The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth’ that things move up several gears, the band starting to enjoy themselves as much as everyone else. The change is so drastic that the fear is that they may have peaked too quickly and too soon.

Such concerns are allayed, thankfully, with ‘Details of the War’ – the closest CYHSY have to a ballad (there’s even a lighter being waved about down the front)- going down a treat. A couple of new tracks are trotted out, which suggest the first album was no fluke. Indeed the band are so tight and up for it (at last), this must have been what it was like to see REM play in the early 80s. There’s nothing to say this lot can’t emulate such success.

Mention must be made of Alec Ounsworth’s yelping vocals, which are an acquired taste. Album opener and encore ‘Clap Your Hands!’ is a case in point but, like the runt of the litter, even the ugliest ones earn their own love.

The Feeling - 8 June 2006 - ULU, London

Okay. Quick question here - have I missed something?

Seriously. Is something passing me by? Because I hate to be left out.

The band in front of me, The Feeling, have been playing for what feels like 20 minutes, and they’re thanking us and saying goodnight.

The debut album ‘Twelve Steps and Home’ has garnered rave reviews of late - Q described it as “perfectly poised, knowingly urbane and slicker than a vaseline spillage,” while Observer Music Magazine awarded it ‘Album of the month.’

That The Feeling offer a return to soft rock (whether we like it or not) is well-known by now - as are the comparisons to Supertramp, Hall & Oates and 10CC.

What is seemingly ignored, however, is the sound of Eurovision washing over us here. This is like being at a high school prom - if we were American, of course.

Two top 10 singles (Sewn and Fill My Little World) suggest that the five-piece may be on to something. But then, choruses that go: “I love it when you call, I love it when you call, I love it when you call, but you never call at all,” belong at the bottom of the sea, if anywhere.

The question remains, then: Have I missed something?

Keane - 5 May 2006 - ULU, London

It’s almost exactly two years ago that Keane released their debut album ‘Hopes and Fears’ – an album that went on to sell over 4m copies worldwide. And the last time that the band played in the capital was for three consecutive nights at Brixton Academy. Tonight, 18 months later at ULU (capacity – 900), Keane are back, Back, BACK, and they’ve filled their boots.

After the most inauspicious of entrances (shuffle, shuffle, not so much as an “‘ello”), the three-piece trial most of their new album, ‘Under the Iron Sea’. For fear of boring the die-hards (the majority of people here are signed-up members of the Keane website), the band pepper the setlist with old reliables, including ‘Somewhere Only We Know,’ ‘Everybody’s Changing,’ and ‘Bedshaped.’

But it’s the new tracks that highlight what sounds like it must have been a tough time of late for the band. The word is ‘dark’ – or as singer Tom Chaplin puts it after the first couple of songs: “Welcome to the strange new world of Keane.” There’s a brooding menace to ‘Atlantic,’ while ‘Bad Dream,’ although hook-laden, suggests that the boys may have had a struggle on their hands at the time of writing this album. Interviews over the coming weeks might help shed some light on the matter.

More impressively, though, is the fact that these new songs feel fuller, stronger and more polished than the first album, which, when played live, always sounded - and looked - like a bit of help was needed. Could do with a guitar? Here’s a piano that sounds like one (‘Is It Any Wonder?’).

There are certainly some stories to be told about the writing of these new songs. But one thing is for certain – Keane’s boots are filled. If this album does as well as the last, then there’s plenty of time for you to fill yours.