By indulging himself in his Baader-Meinhof and Black Box Recorder side-projects, Luke Haines may have sabotaged The Auteurs' chances of moving from cult status to mainstream success. Listen to the band's latest album, How I Learned To Love The Bootboys, however, and you realise that commercial success is probably the last thing on Haines's agenda. A small but loyal crowd came to Vicar St on Monday to witness the return of The Auteurs, and were rewarded with a tightly-coiled and sharply-crafted set of songs from the acerbic pen of Haines. Brett Anderson may be fixated on the paraphernalia of drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll, and Jarvis Cocker may be obsessed with the ordinary and mundane, but Haines's song-writing vision is a pile-up of plane crashes, murders, terrorist groups and street violence. Ocean Colour Scene fans might find the subject matter a bit too heavy, man.
Future Generations brought us up to speed with Luke's progress to date, while Baader-Meinhof and Meet Me At The Airport tackled international intrigue with a jaundiced nerve. The music was finely-balanced between guitar, bass, drums and cello, the latter adding to the discomfort of Unsolved Child Murder.
Unlike Oasis, Haines does indeed look back in anger, and songs such as 1967, The Rubettes and Your Gang, Our Gang put the boot into nostalgia, fulfillng Haines's threat to "put a pox on the 1970s". Sadly, Haines's hatred of nostalgia meant that he was a little sparing with his back catalogue, but he did pull out a handful of nuggets from the Auteurs' past, including How Could I Be Wrong?, Lenny Valentino and Starstruck. Honourable mention should go to the electronically-tinged acoustic tunes of support act David Kitt, one of the few Irish male singer-songwriters who is not trying to sound like Dylan, Thom Yorke or Jeff Buckley.
