Laddish bravado, a relic from a bygone era: Scouting For Girls live

The O2 Academy Birmingham looks an incredibly optimistic venue for Scouting For Girls to be headlining in 2019. While their noughties hits have aged well (undeniably better than their increasingly problematic band name), the three-piece have since succumbed to the law of diminishing returns, and have struggled to make an impact since 2012’s tepid The Light Between Us spluttered to number 10 in the album charts. Yet here they are, visiting an academy-sized venue in support of their new album The Trouble With Boys, their lowest charting LP by some 12 places. Even for ever-earnest frontman Roy Stride, a 3000+ capacity room must have seemed like a stretch when the tour was being booked.

It’s with some surprise, then, that the O2 Academy is a near-sellout on this damp Saturday evening. Bounding on stage to the theme tune of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stride is brimming with bravado as he launches into The Trouble With Boys lead single ‘Grown Up’. It’s an odd choice for an opener: half of the audience at most are familiar with the track, which never quite seems to get going. The comparatively huge roar that greets the opening bassline of 2008 hit ‘Heartbeat’, which follows in quick succession, only seems to confirm the gulf in quality between their self-titled debut and their latest efforts. It seems a safe bet to expect plenty more of those sunny late-noughties tunes. 

But it soon becomes clear this isn’t the order of the night. The band clearly have a lot of confidence in their latest material even if society at large doesn’t. They choose to dedicate a sizable portion of the setlist to newer songs. The Trouble With Boys’ title track is one of these, boasting a chorus that attempts to rhyme “boys” with “Freud”, “choice” and, erm, “boys”, and a dire falsetto call and response from bassist Greg Churchouse. Similarly, ‘Count on Me’ is a sub-Lewis Capaldi dirge that sees energy levels in the pit plummet, while 2013 stand-alone single ‘Millionaire’ takes an inexplicable diversion into ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’. It’s hard to see how the band feel these songs merit inclusion over absent classics ‘The Mountains of Navaho’ or ‘It’s Not About You’. 

The band clearly have a lot of confidence in their latest material, even if society at large doesn’t 

Stride’s cheeky chappy persona manages to transcend these setlist errors, to a point. But even his most devoted fans may be feeling a tad uncomfortable during Everybody Wants to Be on TV cut ‘Posh Girls’. The song’s lyrics were questionable back in 2010, and almost a decade later it is difficult to hear Stride belt out a chorus of “posh girls have good manners but they go like the clappers ‘coz they never got to hang around with boys at school” and not feel mortally embarrassed on his behalf. When Stride uses the middle eight to point at a woman in the crowd and declare that she “doesn’t look very posh”, it’s the ceremonial cherry atop this Peroni-infused, Lynx Africa-scented cake. Roy is a proper bloke, and he wants you to know that. 

Thankfully, this is as deep into the realm of laddism as our Roy dives tonight. The last quarter of the set sees an about-turn into more familiar territory, with ‘This Ain’t a Love Song’, ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’ and even early b-side ‘Michaela Strachan’ all making welcome appearances. Even if the band toe the line between endearingly raw and straight-up sloppy precariously at points, it’s hard to care when the songs are this much fun. School disco classic ‘She’s So Lovely’ brings the show to a rowdy conclusion soon after, a satisfying conclusion to a somewhat patchy display. 

Scouting For Girls know their audience. If the response from the crowd is anything to go by, there’s still a small yet dedicated fanbase out there who are lapping up the new material, and it’s hard to argue that the majority of the 3000 or so people in tonight haven’t had a wonderful evening. But it’s also hard to see where this ageing live act goes from here. There’s only so many times a band can wheel out the same old tricks before it starts to approach its expiry date, and the laddish bravado of Scouting For Girls is beginning to feel like a relic from a bygone era.