The Big Pink @ The Forum, London

Touting a spare free ticket around for The Big Pink, it quickly becomes obvious just how dramatically the bubble of hype that surrounded their arrival last year has well and truly burst.

Amongst a slew of polite declines, shaken heads and one amusingly sarky remark about their lyrics’ perceived misogyny, one friend does eventually say yes – but later texts to say he wants to retract his decision as, having had the chance to listen to them a bit more, “they’re really Shoreditch wanky”. Plus, he notes with cool disdain, they went to Harrow. In the week David Cameron became prime minister, it seems a public school education can still get you everywhere in politics, but doesn’t help when it comes to forming fan allegiances in the music business.

Still, if there’s one thing that has to be said about The Big Pink at the Forum tonight, they do have a good live sound. Cranked up to full volume, it is remarkably fully-formed in all its strutting, nu-shoegazing intensity. Combined with a shuddering light display, it makes for an impressive spectacle... well, for about 15 minutes, anyway.

In the powerful beats of ‘Crystal Visions’ and the rousing ‘Velvet’, they have at least two tracks that push their carefully constructed white noise to its fullest extent.

Beyond that, however, the façade begins to crumble. The ersatz nature of The Big Pink becomes all too clear during the slower mid-set songs, when an undeniable dullness sinks upon proceedings. Things aren’t helped by the remarkably middle-aged audience, who have presumably come along in search of the spirit of My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain.

Unfortunately, while they might be able ape the fuzzy, feedback-laden sounds of their heroes, The Big Pink cannot whip up the kind of rave-like fervour their music surely needs to feed off to really come alive. Come the end of their time onstage, the night falls like Dominoes: flat.