Air Traffic, Camden Barfly, 2 October 2006

I blame Coldplay. Ever since Chris Martin warbled about everything being everything being the wrong colour, introducing bed-wetting music to the mainstream, we’ve witnessed a string of vapid piano-led indie bands trying to imitate their success.

But if bands as banal as Keane and Athlete can do it, so can Air Traffic. The EMI-signed trendy hair-cut band, all in their early twenties, played a set of predominantly two and a half minute, four-chord pop songs, kicking off with their latest bouncy single Just Abuse Me.

Lead singer Chris Wall showed sparks of pianist talent but was constrained by a set-list that lacked originality.

Jarvis Cocker made a good point last week when he criticised bands for thinking more about the money than the music. Air Traffic demonstrated this, communicating well with each other on stage but not saying much to the crowd apart from plugging their t-shirts.

Their set all seemed rather formulaic, Wall even having the lyrics to the sickly-sentimental Shooting Star written on a sheet on top of his piano.

Air Traffic’s drabness was exacerbated by strength of their support acts. Circuits played a set of bristling 70s influenced guitar tunes with zest, but it was Indianan rock band Murder by Death that shone the most.

If you met their short ropey lead vocalist Turla in the street, you wouldn’t expect him to be the type of person to be bellowing deep echoing lyrics about confronting every level of hell. But at the Barfly, he had the crowd captivated as Sarah Ballet’s chilling cello strums fused with his punk guitar sounds.

Air Traffic were inevitably lauded by 400 teenage fans. Having received acclaim from the likes of Radio 1’s Jo Whiley, their chart success may well be inexorable. Catch them at the Dublin Castle on Oct 17 before it’s too late and you can’t get tickets to see them at the Brits.