ROCK

‘We are the Plain White T’s from Chicago. And we’re super excited about this tour!’ Sharing that enthusiasm was the unusual occurrence of a squealing audience of young ladies in the Tut’s crowd, but despite a promisingly frenetic start, things soon took a more sinister turn into one-size-fits-all stadium rock territory.

Like a history of punk rock in miniature, the set went from wrong-side-of the-tracks bad attitude to middle-of-the-road OC-friendly ballads, but in 20 minutes rather than 20 years. And although singer Tom Higgenson bears a passing resemblance to Alex Turner, it’s hard to imagine the latter penning anything entitled ‘Friends Don’t Let Friends Drink and Dial’ or opening a song with, ‘This is a love song I’d like to dedicate to all the beautiful ladies I admire’ in anything other than deadpan fashion.

That said, there is something deeply infectious about the hummable choruses, particularly during the encore of ‘Hey There Delilah’ and ‘Take Me Away’, and if my foot was jauntily tapping along, then take me away officer for getting carried away during what was a calculated, if charismatic performance.