It seems that 'hyped' or 'hotly tipped' is synonymous with 'overrated' when it comes to new bands in the press these days.
Foals are certainly hyped, and hotly tipped to breakthrough as one of 2008's biggest acts but judging by their live performance, they don't appear to be overrated.
They are ostensibly a techno influenced in
die-punk band, driven by trebly staccato guitars, 80s synths and dance drum and bass rhythms.
If you think of acts like New Order, The Cure and Klaxons, you're some way towards describing the Foals' sound.
On stage their energy rubs off on the crowd, made up primarily of what looked like sixth formers.
Their second song of the night, Cassius, is a three-minute gem that stuck in my head for days and had the 'kids' bouncing in a frenzy.
Crowd favourites Hummer and Balloons were delivered with the clean precision of a band who are well rehearsed, playing Norwich's now defunct Ferryboat and
Arts Centre before making the step up to the heady heights of the 750-capacity Waterfront.
But Foals didn't simply churn out a set of three minute songs. They veered off into instrumentals and broke their songs down to their base elements before building them back up again to crescendo.
Songs like Red Sox Pugie and Two Steps Twice demonstrated a maturity that suggests this band have the talent to be more than a flavour-of-the-year, one album wonder.
The full article contains 246 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
