Fountains of Wayne

There are two words that, may, explain just why Fountains of Wayne have been booked to play at this year’s V Festival. Yes – you guessed it. Stacey’s Mom.

Bands that are made famous by one song often receive a lot of stick. I could give you examples of Linkin Park with ‘One Step Closer’ or Hoobastank more recently with ‘The Reason’. Some of these bands grow and thrive whilst others simply shrivel in to the non-existence of music-past.

You get the impression that if Fountains of Wayne were playing on a hotter day, without any cloud in the skies, that they would make good background noise to eat your lunch to. Sadly there are clouds here and I’ve already had lunch.

The band are not bad performers, the music isn’t bad and quite a few members of the crowd seem to be enjoying themselves. The problem is simple. Fountains of Wayne are bland. Think of a marmite sandwich. Now remove the marmite. That’s what you get with Fountains of Wayne – no filling and nothing to tempt you in the slightest.

Just as my opinions of the band have sunk, they decide to take it upon themselves the insult Metallica off-handedly and imply that they are not a real band. Whether or not you like Metallica – it is pretty rich to insult a band with such a vast catalogue of music when you are known for only one song.

As Stacey’s Mom concludes several people leave before the set ends. The last time I saw this was with Electric Six’s ‘Gay Bar’ – however, unlike Electrix Six, don’t be expecting Fountains of Wayne to play any covers of Queen or to play at clubs in Ibiza next summer.

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