Teenage scrum: Larrikin Love made the dancefloor move Spot on: The Delilahs Guaranteed action: Supergrass

Queues, blues and ruined shoes ­ Yep, it's the Crawl

Charlotte Chambers, Giles Cottle, Róisín Gadelrab and Jane Wild soaked up the sweat, sounds and lager showers at this year’s indie frenzy



THE FUTUREHEADS
KOKO

The Futureheads have previously shared a bill with Bloc Party, the Kaiser Chiefs and Killers on the NME tour.
While they may not yet have emulated their touring partners with headline tours and appearances on The OC, they have built up a following on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to relentless touring, a debut album bristling with ideas and energy and the chart-slaying Kate Bush cover Hounds of Love.
It’s a testament to how far the band have come that they have now been propelled to the heights of one of the Crawl’s traditional (and usually very badly kept) secret headline slots.
It’s one of their final shows before the release of new album News and Tributes in May, and they take to the stage at a packed Koko with a huge queue of punters outside the venue desperate to get in.
For those inside, it soon becomes clear that the Futureheads have become a much tighter, meaner outfit than before.
All the vital ingredients remain; the catchy three-minute pop songs, the spiky XTC-esque guitars, the four-part harmonies delivered in broad Sunderland accents, yet there is a confidence and verve in their performance that was far less obvious in previous live outings.
New songs Cope, Fallout and Back to the Sea all go down well, but it’s the old favourites that really get the crowd dancing. A to B, Area and Decent Days and Night are all gleefully dispatched.
Hounds of Love is casually chucked in halfway through the set and even a power cut that caused the band to leave the stage for 10 minutes failed to dampen proceedings.
Clearly, it takes a lot more than that to knock a good band off their stride.
GC

SUPERGRASS
Dublin Castle

I KNOW it’s easy to say but ape-like Gaz and the rest of the Supergrass mob are guaranteed crowd-pleasers.
An entrance hampered slightly by the fact that they had to fight through their adoring fans to actually reach the stage, they whipped up the crowd into a maniacal frenzy like true professionals.
Rolling out hit after hit at their smallest gig in a decade – Lenny, Pumping on Your Stereo, as well as a couple of new ones – they needed only strike up a chord for the crowdsurfing to begin.
Although there’s not much room for that sort of thing in the Dublin Castle, one or two braver souls were willing to sacrifice their shoes for the sake of a quick roll over the heads of the moshing hordes.
Pre-Asbo anthem Caught by the Fuzz proved timeless, sounding as fresh today as it did in 1994 and guaranteed a lager shower for all.
But although you know they’re a good choice when you want to guarantee a good time for an audience of beer-swigging lads in fun indie T-shirts, I can’t help feeling Supergrass are missing something. They are great for a ‘now’ buzz but, I fear, their act is getting old. That’s not to say anybody looked disappointed by Thursday’s performance.
Yes, Supergrass – watched by the very drunken Welsh actor Rhys Ifans – were a fine choice to end the night as wide-eyed Danny, pointy eyebrowed Gaz sporting cool braces, Mick and Rob closed a jubilant show.
RG

THE ON-OFFS
Bullet

DESPITE playing in one of Camden Crawl’s earliest slots, the On-Offs managed to commandeer a healthy sized crowd.
And if some of those number had merely come early to bag a spot for later acts, there were still enough people clearly enjoying themselves for it not to matter.
A three-piece from Northampton, they’re now in the middle of a relentless touring schedule.
Currently supporting the Rakes on tour, they also have an enviable list of support slots for a small band, playing with the Ordinary Boys, the Charlatans, Hard-Fi and Graham Coxon to name a few.
And just why they’d make a good warm-up act soon became clear.
The On-Offs fizzed with energy, frontman Danny Connors alternately cradling the microphone then flicking himself about like an uncoiling spring.
Drummer Luke Goddard thrashed along manically, while guitarist Andy Crofts provided solid support.
Their onstage antics were a perfect accompaniment to their material.
Tales of misdemeanours, scrapes and scraps, they rocked along with the air of a bunch of naughty schoolboys.
JW

THE DELILAHS
Dublin Castle

BRINGING high hopes as one of the few female bands to take part in the Crawl, Swiss three-piece The Delilahs – oddly not all that blonde and looking very much like clones of manufactured teen rebel Avril Lavigne (pre-transformation) – got off to a strong start.
Lead singer 19-year-old Muriel Rhyner, held her own with a clear voice, backed by Isabella Eder on guitar and energetic drummer Sonja Zimmerli.
The reception from the girls in the crowd was typical of women torn between magnanimity and jealousy – while several girls whistled and shouted “sexy” as they made their entrance – one lone voice observed “she got that top from H&M” – true, but she’s in a rock band. Are you?
Sadly the show went downhill from then on, the drums getting decidedly more leaden while the songs themselves became indistinguishable from each other.
Although adequate, Rhyner could have been helped by the addition of a second voice, while tracks like Trouble with Mondays just didn’t leave an impact.
Still, they definitely showed signs of promise and they may have a bright future.
RG

LARRIKIN LOVE
Electric Ballroom

EVERYONE knows kids are dangerous, with their hoodies and over-enthusiastic ways, but try finding yourself in the middle of a full-on teenage scrum, valiantly trying to take photos of Larrikin Love.
For those fully clued up on the indie scene, this band will already be big news. For the rest of us, take note.
Touring with the Zutons in May, they are also one of two relatively unknown bands confirmed on the line-up for this weekend’s Live 24 – alongside Kaiser Chiefs and Razorlight – despite their first single, Edwould, released earlier this month, just denting the top 50 in the charts.
Just like Hard-Fi last year, who seemed to go stratospheric after performing at the Crawl, I haven’t heard such catchy songs and enjoyed them cold for ages.
Slightly barnstorming at times, I almost wondered if slightly alien-like singer Edward Larrikin would break out into a line-dance. Sadly not.
But as I edged away from the front, desperately trying to get away from the mosh-pit which wouldn’t stop growing, I knew I was watching a band destined to go far.
CC

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