GIG REVIEW: Grandeur Rat @ Varsity, Wolverhampton

It's not very often you come across a band that really does look proper rock 'n' roll, but Grandeur Rat most certainly do. They are not a band you can go to the bar to whilst they're starting, they encapsulate their audience from the moment they plug in. Starting up the music, one by one, frontman Olly Burslem enters onto the stage looking likes he's not slept in days and he's halfway to drinking himself into an early grave -and that's probably not the worst of it.

Drawing the crowd in with a their own take of I Think I Smell a Rat (The White Stripes), Olly absolutely owns the stage and lead parading aboutlike a young Mick Jagger. Yog on drums is just too reminiscent of ascarecrow for some people's taste. Guitarist Andy probably looks themost tame but he's got a twinkle in his eye that says he can't wait forthe aftershow. Bassist Greg, dressed all in black just finishes it off to a tee.

They do the messy garage rock well, obvious influences taken from The Rollling Stones, Kings of Leon and the general Pete Doherty vibe. Quickpaced drumbeats and screaming make for good entertainment during crowdpleaser 'Bon Voyage'. 'Six Lovers Four Seasons' is another foot tapper, but 4 songs or so in,it does start to wear thin. The general tempo of each song is very similar, I suppose that's not an easy problem to solve for the garage rock scene.

My recommendation is, if you like this sort of fast-paced drug-fuelled sleazy rock, Grandeur Rat may satisfy the fix but maybe Leicester's Dirty Backbeats do it better.