As the Summer Series at Somerset House continues Friday evening (11th Jult) saw Irish outfit Kodaline take to the stage supported by current festival-favourite minor act Sons and Lovers. Kodaline are not a particularly innovative band, as their music is rather tailored for a target audience that was immediately recognisable on arrival at the venue. The neo-classical courtyard was filled with teenagers with their parents, small groups of girlfriends, and of course couples, couples everywhere; everyone expecting their fix of love-and-loss ballads.

An hour after the doors opened, Sons and Lovers arrived onstage for a short but heartfelt set of slow emotive songs. While not doing much to liven the crowd up, they did a good job of setting the atmosphere for a night of romantic outpourings, and surely their friendly attitude won them new followers as they were persistently inviting us to meet them after the gig.

Half an hour break and a few sound checks later, it was finally time for the main act. The Irishmen opened their debut album set up with ‘After the Fall’, which, despite the lyrics about separation, is among their more energetic numbers and worked the band’s magic into compelling even the less devoted part of the audience, me included, to chant the wordless chorus. ‘One Day’ kept spirits high until the band was joined by a violinist for the performance of ‘Pray’, which slowed the pace down considerably and frontman Steve Garrigan decided to take a break and thank us all for gathering there. Indeed the gig was broken down by many short pauses, some featuring excessive blinding light effects. This felt as if the band were trying to protract their otherwise short set, which most of the time was not a minus as Steve was quite interactive and, let’s face it, a good part of the female audience was there for his eye candy pop star looks, so his prolonged presence onstage was met with approval.

Next came the few more jovial songs on Kodaline’s repertoire, in the midst of which Steve grabbed a harmonica for a cheerful rendition of ‘Way Back When’. There was another break, this time carrying an important announcement that this was to be their last London show before going in for recording new material. About time I would say, as ‘In a Perfect World’ brought them an array of awards and a massively successful tour, but we have yet to see whether their appeal so far has been solely due to novelty or whether they will grant themselves a permanent place along the melodic pop rock acts.

Few songs before the finale came ‘High Hopes’, which is probably the band’s most anthemic number. Steve’s penetrating falsetto induced tears, chanting and mass-hugging across the crowd, which made for a truly emotional experience. Couples were clutching and serenading each other, friends were laughing and crying together and everyone was feeling young again. However, it felt like the song was grossly misplaced in the set, as the drab tracks that followed overshadowed the magic of the ‘High Hopes’ moment with endless repetitive hooks and utter boredom, only managing to satisfy the most loyal of their female fans, while I noticed quite a few honest yawns from their boyfriends. Even the encore, for which the four-piece took a bit too long to show back up on stage before performing ‘The Answer’ and the lit-by-cell phones The Fault in our Stars’ soundtrack ‘All I want’ did not quite bring the mood back up and by the end of it I was just begging for the band to go offstage.

Kodaline’s performance at Somerset House did not justify the comparisons that are often drawn between them and U2, Coldplay and even more absurdly, early Radiohead; as their clichéd pop ballads bring them much closer to a guitar-equipped utterly heartbroken version of Backstreet Boys. Still, while not everyone’s cup of tea, the Irish lads have their devoted fan base that they cater for perfectly.

Setlist:

After the Fall

One Day

Pray

Brand New Day

Love Like This

Way Back When

Lose Your Mind

High Hopes

Big Bad World

Talk
All Comes Down

Encore:

The Answer

All I want