Saturday 01/09/07 Hard-Fi @ The Irish Centre, Birmingham

Dressed all in black, the Staines massive, as they’ve never been called, arrive on cue just after nine. Things are all a bit subdued early doors though and it takes new single ‘Suburban Knights’ and old live favourite ‘Tied Up Too Tight’ to get the crowd finally moving. New track ‘Television’ - surely a future single?! - is arguably their best to date. The cohesion between rasping guitars, crashing cymbals and the gospel Hallelujah chorus shows the emerging maturity to Hard-Fi’s writing. The old taxi office won’t be going quiet any time soon.

However, the silence that met Archer’s “we know somebody who  says this is the best venue in the country”, kinda summed things up. It’s not. And neither is tonight’s performance. Slurred vocals and demands for love and happiness sit alongside forgotten lyrics and sped-up riffs. the late arrivals of ‘Cash Machine’, ‘Hard To Beat’ and for the encore ‘Living For The Weekend’, leave the crowd happy, but it’s still not quite enough. If Hard-Fi want to make the jump to mainstay in the indie hierarchy they need to stop relying upon the ideology that cold water on my face, brings me back to the brink.

The idea behind the Small Arena Tour was no doubt to give something back to the fans. An opportunity for Hard-Fi’s loyal fans to see them up close and personal. “We’ve got where we are because of you guys,” cries Archer mid-way through tonight’s set, cue rapturous applause. For the neutral however, this sticks in the throat. A pass for this evening’s entertainment? Twenty pounds and fifty English pence (and that’s before the postman, booking clerk and neighbour’s cat got involved) for just one hour from a band now sitting on two releases. Hard to beat? Not really.