Complete with hair-over-eyes surfer dude haircuts and American beach bum accents it’s a bit of a shock when you realize Rooster originate from West London. Rooster thrive on playing big empty rock anthems that have about as much hidden meaning as Dan Browns’s Da Vinci Code, but without any of the originality.
The songs are dripping with a spread of predictable mum friendly soft rock that Matchbox 20 and The Calling have already inflicted on us in the past. Infact you can’t help wondering if The Calling’s ‘Chasing the sun’ was playing through Rooster’s mind when they wrote ‘Staring at the sun’.
Dressed in summery Californian T-shirts the band performed their first single, the catchy, if mildly irritating ‘Come Get some’. Although it sounds a bit too much like The Backstreet Boys this song does have a rather good guitar hook. Which is something to be said about Rooster; musically they are actually very good, it’s just that lyrically they are dreadful. “I’ve been waiting a lifetime for someone like you to set me free, why did it take so long for you to rescue me” droans lead singer Nick Atkinson on ‘You’re so right for me’. So profound it could have been a Britney Spears cover.
I’m afraid the set doesn’t get much better and Rooster play up to the crowd of screaming girls, crushed at the front of the barrier, waving their disposable cameras back and forth. Occasionally the band decide to play a few crunchy guitar solos, but for the most part we’re subjected to listening to Atkinson and his dreary voice. The aptly titled ‘Deep and Meaningless’ pretty much sums up Rooster. I can’t help wondering if it’s an attempt at irony from their record label. The song is about as bad as Rooster can get – a vomit inducing attempt at trying to recreate an Aerosmith ballad, but twice as overblown and five times as insipid.
If you’re a fan of Channel 4’s Orange County, or have spent most of your life wearing dreadful shirts and pretending to be a member of Hawaii 5O then by all means go and see this band. Otherwise, their CD would make a great Christmas present for your mum – just make sure you’ve already left home.
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