The Naked and Famous at The Olympia Theatre, Dublin on 25th November 2013

You’ve got to hate New Zealanders, right? As the crushing wave of depression coursed through the country on Sunday afternoon, we all cursed them in one voice and vowed our unending hatred to our antipodean enemies.

It was actually strange how quickly we got over our Rugby-based travails, happy to welcome Kiwi synthpoppers The Naked and Famous to Dublin’s Olympia Theatre just over twenty-four hours later. The crowd seem to completely ignore their obvious baiting tactic wearing all black as they walked on stage, just when we thought we had gotten over it.

The five-piece take their places behind their instruments – a drum-set and more keys than a school caretakers convention – and start into ‘Rolling Waves’ opener A Stillness; Alisa Xayalith’s beautiful vocals rising above the noise for the soft intro. It’s a voice heavily distorted on the albums and, unfortunately, not heard again in its natural purity after the beat kicks in and A Stillness takes a Big Time Sensuality­-ish turn.

Predictably, it is the singles that get the biggest reactions. Punching in a Dream gets people punching the air, and Hearts Like Ours and Girls Like You get most of the sold out theatre singing along. Young Blood, the final song of the show coming just over an hour after the first, receives fevered screams and joyous dancing from the first bars that last throughout.

Elsewhere, the slower songs like Grow Old and No Way are not received as well and both struggle to rise above the chatter that breaks out when they are played.

Xayalith bounces around the stage, a smile never far from her face. She seems like a children’s television presenter full of boundless enthusiasm, with a large side order of borderline patronising conversation. It’s not helped when she introduces Punching in a Dream by saying “This is for all the boys and girls who play FIFA.”

And, much like a children’s television presenter, the show is a bit too sweet to be wholesome. It’s just too safe to be truly exciting. As they bound from one upbeat, synthpop tune to the next upbeat, synthpop tune they leave little lasting impression. Rolling Waves – a song where Xayalith gets the crowd to sing along and do specific dance moves in finest preschool style – has a California Dreams quality to it. This is middle of the road music of the most average variety.

It’s almost impossible to dislike any part of the show, and you will find yourself tapping your toes whether consciously or not, but equally hard to love it. It’s all just a little bit too polished to be held. At least we forgot about the rugby for a while.

The Naked and Famous Photo Gallery

Photos: Kieran Frost