Gig review: Hard-Fi

STAINES quartet Hard-Fi topped the albums chart and received a deserved Mercury Prize nomination for their 2005 debut Stars of CCTV – a record that excelled in saying something for and about the lives of regular working-class people through a modern fusion of indie and dance.

HARD-FI

ABC, GLASGOW

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But returns have since diminished with the band’s creative mojo – a decline their unremarkable new album Killer Sounds hasn’t halted. The turnout was low at this gig and atmosphere in short supply, despite frontman Richard Archer’s earnest and energetic efforts to stoke up some enthusiasm.

Hard-Fi don’t deserve to be judged by a blokey element among their audience typified by the knucklehead who chucked a pint at Archer’s face – which he nimbly ducked – before the second chorus of the opening song had even been reached. But they do have to be judged by their latest output, and the rote likes of Good For Nothing and Rock The Casbah rip-off Stay Alive couldn’t muster an original or memorable idea between them. As if the band’s love for The Clash wasn’t plain enough, they went on to knock out a pub-rock cover of I Fought the Law. “We’re available for weddings,” joked Archer.

First-album numbers Cash Machine – an anthem for the unemployed that maybe arrived slightly ahead of its time – and bring-it-on indie-disco staples Hard to Beat and Living For the Weekend predictably mustered the biggest responses of the night and still sounded fresh and imposing. But however up for the fight Hard-Fi might be, past glories alone won’t turn a rising tide of indifference.

MALCOLM JACK