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Reader rating
Description: The Illinois rock band perform hits including UK hit single, Hey There Delilah.
Phone: 0207434 9592
Website: http://www.festivalrepublic.com/venues/#Astoria
Trains: Tube: Tottenham Court Road 
Extra info: Pub
Sloppy: Plain White T's needed a more manly approach
With their chip-shop apostrophe and unaccountable desire to dress like The Knack, Plain White T's are nothing if not bumbling. Yet the Chicago quintet's soppy ballad Hey There Delilah (from their third album, All That We Needed in 2006, but cynically recruited to open their current set Every Second Counts) was the sound of last summer for a generation of lovelorn pre-university students.
Last night, it swooned as languidly as ever but the draught afterwards was caused by the bulk of the crowd heading for the exits the second it concluded.
Singer Tom Higgenson's promise that his band will be back before the year is out may be honoured in a smaller venue the more the hit fades from memory, unless it's emulated by the almost identical Write You A Song.
Playing for less than an hour, Plain White T's were as free of personality as they were of depth. They specialised in jaunty pop punk (oddly, for all its nods to Fall Out Boy, not a million miles away from The Knack), underpinned by a good-natured sweetness but undermined by Higgenson's sloppiness between songs and powderpuff vocals on material which demanded a more manly approach, especially the tub-thumping Our Time Now.
Their inspired, hard-hitting drummer De'mar Hamilton gave every impression of being from another band.
Alas, that band would probably be superior to and bolder than Plain White T's. Sometimes, being likeable isn't quite enough.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Either you like that type of music or you don't like it. Songs like 'Our Time Now' describe the way of music they do. They are no accoustic band but they are very good in what they do and I don't think they want to copy any style. They just do what they want to do and there are people who like it, if you don't, that's okay.
- Nicola, Germany
