LIVE: The Courteeners - Manchester Apollo 11.12.15

*Disclaimer: If you like The Courteeners, you might want to look away.

Courteeners are one of those strange bands that I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with; I enjoy their music, but there’s something about them that I can never quite enjoy and a little too often it over powers the music.

Kicking off their set with ‘Are You In Love With A Notion?’, things didn’t seem too bad – the crowd as always lap up Courteeners and if they can’t be credited with anything else, their ability to unite a pretty random group of people is rather impressive. Justified or not, they’ve secured their spot as an iconic Manchester band.

That said it seems Liam can’t talk about anything else. Before long the set digressed into a narcissistic mess: Liam mentioned at least 30 times all the bands he’d seen and met at the Apollo and how much such and such a venue meant to him. Of course, if you too have grown up in Manchester I suppose it might be more sentimental, but for anyone that hasn’t it was just boring.

The rest of the set was equally as boring: the band had set themselves up in the middle of the stage and seemed glued to their positions. The set itself had potential – besides the inclusion of ‘Winter Wonderland’ – with a couple of b-sides (‘Smiths Disco’ and ‘Hometown One’) making an appearance. Said b-sides, however, were performed by Fray on his own – yet another part of the problem. Sure, the crowds are excited, but there’s something really depressing about the incessant shouts of “Liam, Liam”. The rest of the band seems almost disposable – for a “band” far too much credit and attention is given to the frontman (especially for a frontman who currently looks like a member of Maroon 5).

It seems a shame to have to criticise Courteeners so much, especially when, as I said, I actually do enjoy their music. There performance was just lacking somewhat, and though I wasn’t going to not sing along to ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ I was, ultimately, disappointed.