The Ting Tings

• Posted: Tue 22 Nov 2011
• By: Kev

Aside from the fact that I was a fan of Dear Eskimo (i've still got a signed 7" in my collection somewhere) up to their untimely demise, i've always had a soft spot for The Ting Tings, despite their ability to rub people up the wrong way with their infectious pop songs, I personally find myself falling for their musical charms everytime.

Tonight is their first proper tour in a couple of years so it's a good chance to catch them in a reasonably small venue, they don't show any signs of being rusty though, blowing off the cobwebs with an action packed, energetic show that mixes old favourites with a decent sized preview of the newer material as well.

I'm going to level with you here, throughout the show i'm a little bit transfixed by Katie White, she 's full of energy, dances around like a loon with her guitar....and she's wearing knee high socks and a pair of shorts so small that even 1980's footballers would complain about the size of them!

She's the definite focal point of the group, which is understandable when Jules De Martino seems to be morphing closer and closer to Dave Stewart all the time....let's just hope that Katie doesn't turn into Annie Lennox eh?

They are confident form to start with, interacting with the crowd and able to throw Great DJ (my favourite of theirs) into the set three songs in, it's instantly recognisable and sounds just as fresh today as it did the first time I heard it.

They follow that up with another early single (Fruit Machine) and the crowd are right with them at this point. Even when they throw in a few new songs the crowd stay with them, new songs that to me have a definite hip hop vibe to them in a similar way to someone like Northern State, mixed with a bit of Lucious Jackson.

Keep Your Head, We Walk, Shut Up And Let Me Go are all given a well received airing in and amongst some new material....but it's the encore song that really closes things off in style. Introduced "as being about being invisible", That's Not My Name is a cracking set closer and a worthy encore track.

So a very successful comeback gig, the new songs are sounding good and while they still don't entirely convince you that they are the real deal in any one of the genres they traverse, they have so many qualities going for them and competently pull off whatever they do in such an entertaining way and with such enthusiasm that it really doesn't matter if they are the best out their technically or not.

Welcome back the both of you....