Eastenders 1 Home & Away 0

Another day, another Sound City gig.

Judging by last night's Rock City display, openers Hoggboy are four scruffy oiks from Sheffield who seem to have a grossly misplaced sense of belief in their own talents. They hint at The Strokes without ever coming within range, and only the mildly likeable 'Don't Get Lost' emerges from their trashy set unscathed.

Whereas... The Libertines are four scruffy oiks from London Town and, for the first few songs at least, it seems it's the press hype machine which has the grossly misplaced sense of belief in their talents. Musically they ARE The Jam on bad speed (sometimes a bad thing, sometimes good - most notably with the final two songs 'Boys In The Band' and 'I Get Along'), and in Pete Doherty and Carl Barat they have two very watchable frontmen who create a very real frisson of unpredictability and unprofessionalism on stage.

Then, The Vines. I'd seen them at Glastonbury in the summer, where I'd concluded they're good but inevitably fall well short of the hype. And this time? What to say about a band about whom everything has been said? Hmm. Well, Craig Nicholls has a good voice. Hamish Rosser has his cymbals set abnormally high. 'Get Free' is a great single. Ho hum. Oh, and last night they were REALLY FUCKING BORING. The set went Vaguely Punky Song For The Kids followed by Meandering Beatlesy Stoned Pop Song For The Oldies followed by Vaguely Punky Song For The Kids followed by... well, you get the picture. Was I the only person who dreaded the reappearance of Ryan Griffith and his electric acoustic guitar? Apart from 'Get Free', the only songs worthy of passing interest were 'Sun Child', the cover of 'Miss Jackson' and encore-closer '1969'. Craig Nicholls was, for the most part, an unengaging bawling hairball and any onstage antics seemed like going through the motions. And to think I spotted Hamish Rosser picking up tips on how to do the whole rock thing at the Queens Of The Stone Age gig the previous night. You boys are just lucky Josh Homme, Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan et al weren't still around, or they'd have kicked your sorry asses right back over to Kangaroo Country.