Dirty Pretty Things, The Forum, 24 May 2006

This was always going to be a tough set for Carl Barât. The last time he performed at the Forum was in December 2003 with fellow Libertines frontman Pete Doherty. Their gigs were acclaimed as being some of the greatest in recent years, with showstopping stage invasions and guitars flung into the crowd.

The Dirty Pretty Things’ gritty garage rock had a familiar tone, helped no doubt by backing drummer Gary Powell, another former Libertine, who performed with impressive vigour, but Barât looked considerably cooler - it was half way through the set before he even bothered to take his jacket off.

The sea of fans looked animated but not electrified, while shoulder to shoulder security in front of the stage made the chances of a stage invasion slim. And tellingly it was only the Libertines songs, such as I Get Along - performed at breakneck pace - that got everyone in the gallery standing.

But it was this juxtaposition between the two bands' songs which showed up the lacking in the Things’ material. The raw frenetic energy of the Libertines merely teased the crowd while Doherty’s poetic verve was much missed.

The set ended with a jaded effort by Barât to crawl into the crowd and former guitar tech Anthony Rossomando made a lacklustre attempt at smashing his guitar on the symbols, before he quit early to spend a good minute fiddling with it looking genuinely concerned it might be bust.

A poor replica of Barat’s former band’s glory.