Goodbooks, Frank Musik - Buffalo Bar, London - Wednesday 22nd August 2007

I hadn't been to the Buffalo Bar for a while - since last year's ultra small Magic Numbers gig in fact - but I walk past it often, and remembered the smallness, sweatyness and loudness very well indeed. The smokiness has thankfully disappeared since last year, and the fact that people have to go outside to smoke, also helps create enough space for you to physically move inside the bar.

This was the fourth and final night of a Goodbooks residency at the Buffalo Bar, the other nights of which I have missed thanks to a Kings Of Leon gig , a trip to America, and a Courteeners gig respectively. This was also part of the Goonite Club, which I had never previously heard of, but who actually seem to have some pretty decent bands on offer.

Support band for the night were called Frankmusik. They were extremely 80s sounding, with synthesisers and keyboards all over the place. Their vocalist sounded really distant and remote, but I suspect that this was just because the sound wasn't being mixed all that well. This was apparently their first gig, although they have already been reviewed in some parts of the press - I had never heard of them before the day of the gig.

Given the 80s, synth-led sound, which usually spells disaster for me, I actually quite liked some of what they played. It was clearly very contrived, and all far too clever for its own good, but some of the stuff was pretty decent - especially a song called Three Little Words, which is also on their MySpace page. I suspect that they may be a big music industry inside joke (there were loads of record company types watching them, all of whom buggered off at the end of their set), but some of the songs sounded pretty good. Very much on the indie-rave bandwagon, but if the songs are good, who cares?

Goodbooks came on stage at around 9:50, just as England's defeat to Germany was finishing. They are all from nicest Kent, and are pretty posh - the fact that one of them is called Leo von Bulow-Quirk is probably indication enough of this. Despite this, they write amazingly happy-sounding pop singles, and their recent album Control has been shockingly under-rated since its release. Latest single Passchendaele has seen them make something of a breakthrough, but compared to many other new-ish indie bands, they are still relatively unknown.

Their set lasted for only around half an hour, but that was plenty of time to play the current single, as well as previous efforts Leni and Turn It Back. I spent much of the time flitting between thinking that the band were actually fairly rock and roll - they were certainly putting energy into their performance, and getting fairly sweaty. But then, something would happen that reminded you of the utter nice-ness of everything - the singer would be very polite, or they would apologise for something. All this made me think that the band are fairly close to Keane in terms of their members, but obviously making much better music than that.

A good set all in all, and a bargain at a fiver. Goodbooks have a load of good pop songs in their armoury, are great at playing them, and really know how to send an audience home with smiles on their faces. It may be quite nice and sanitised, but it is still a shame that more people haven't heard of them (yet).