The Kooks - Islington Academy, London

Big hair, bigger tunes, and teenage Brighton swagger, The Kooks could just be the soundtrack to your summer with their songs of love, relationships, seasides and not being able to get it up...

Just a few years ago, back in 2002, the most noteworthy thing coming out of Brighton was the lingering stench of piss, left by thousands of pilled and pissed-up punters in the wake of Fatboy Slim’s overcrowded beach party disaster - we literally flooded the place! A low point all round for the south coast city, fortunately since then the only steady stream flowing out of town has been a clutch of stylish, savvy, and above all interesting bands. From the nature embracing mystique of British Sea Power to the polka dots and handclap timewarp of The Pipettes to the gritty country punk of Brakes, all have embraced their own identities and polyfilled their niche, making them uniquely appealing to the ever-competitive UK bear-pit of bands all vying for the limelight. But for all that quirky virtue, it’s perhaps Brighton’s most generic and straight-up band of the moment, The Kooks, that could eventually steal the bigtime.

Playing one of XFM’s legendary free-for-listeners gigs (a sure sign for any band of being on the stratospheric up), there’s enough huge hair on stage tonight to get Wolfmother toying with the idea of hair extensions, singer Luke Pritchard and guitarist Hugh Harris both sporting almost perfectly rounded afros, while bassist Max Rafferty conceals his fuzz under a Serge Kasabian style hat and neck chief.

Opening with the laid back, acoustic strummings of ‘Seaside’, The Kooks give an immediate glimpse into the catchy melodies that will thread through the rest of their set. If you’ve heard debut album ‘Inside In/Inside Out’, you’ll know it’s not rocket science stuff, but it is a formula that rarely ever goes wrong. Think back to some of the seminal pop bands of the ‘60s (The Kinks, The Beatles etc) add the reggae swayings of The Police, press fast forward, and you get the idea - all wrapped up in sub-three minute pop gems.

And it’s the singles that truly stand out here. 'Eddie’s Gun' with its teenage fear of brewers droop ("In the barrel of my gun, I hope I'm not the only one") has the girls at the front lustfully wondering at Pritchard’s crotch as the frontman straddles the barrier. 'Sofa Song' is the perfect pulling pop tune, it’s polite initial inquiry eventually bursting into a scream of sexed up demand. But it’s new single ‘Naïve’ that really sets their bar, both heartfelt and urgent, it’s already a contender for chorus of the summer and we’re all still moping around in hats and scarves. Because The Kooks have that rare Beach Boys ability to make the sun come out whatever time of year it is. Pritchard may complain that the atmosphere is “like a Monday morning in here”, but when you’re in the company of such lush, soaring songs (perhaps even if they’re your own), then maybe everything else does seem just that little bit flat – especially when you’ve just got back from SXSW in Texas!

Brighton doesn’t smell of drunken amonia anymore, rather it reeks of a giddy indie scene that can only get a bigger, buoyed by its sense of optimism and quirky adventure and generated by the notion that it’s just that little bit better by the seaside. The Kooks know it all too well so look out for them this summer; they're about to burn brighter than a scally arson attack on Brighton Pier.