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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
John Aizlewood's rating
Reader rating
Description: The Washington indie-rockers.
Phone: 0870432 5527
Website: www.koko.uk.com
Email: boxoffice@koko.uk.com
Trains: Tube: Mornington Crescent 
Extra info: Pub
New look: Ben Gibbard has evolved from a bespectacled geek to a luxuriously maned love god
Despite their idiotic name (taken from a song by British Sixties eccentrics Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band), Death Cab For Cutie are no novelty act. The Seattle quartet's current and sixth album, Narrow Stairs, leapt into the American charts at number one and gave them their first Top 30 British hit.
Last night's show at an uncomfortably packed, giddily enthusiastic Koko (part of this year's iTunes festival) unveiled a band whose moment has come at last.
And, as if to hammer home the point, leader Ben Gibbard has evlolved from a bespectacled geek with David Cameron's hair into a luxuriously maned, spectacles-free love god. "Right now," he noted, "I feel like I'm in a really good movie."
In their world, Gibbard's winsome voice (a less mannered Neil Tennant) and despairing lyrics meet guitarist Chris Walla's enticing musical backdrops and a tub-thumping rhythm section.
Those basic-sounding ingredients are juggled feverishly into a beguiling cornucopia, from No Sunlight, the gorgeous slab of spry pop with more hooks than an angling festival, to the more tangled Summer Skin and, as the audience squealed in delighted recognition, the urgent Soul Meets Body.
The centrepiece, I Will Possess Your Heart, took its cue from The Cure's A Forest and New Order's Blue Monday. It began with a languid, five-minute bass-heavy introduction, incorporated elements of Can-style krautrock and climaxed with Gibbard singing this stalker's saga sitting down, drowning in dry ice. Musically breathtaking, visually sinister, it was the peak of an evening of peaks, although the clattering The Sound Of Settling ran it close.
Strangely, they sagged in the encore: Gibbard's solo showcase I Will Follow You Into The Dark was wetter than last week; while Cath... was lumpen drear, before the stately transatlanticism reminded us just what all the earlier fuss was all about. Mostly marvellous.
Brixton Academy on Thursday, sold out (08444 772000).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
