It’s a cold night in Nottingham but things always heat up in the sweat and intensity of Rock City. Tonight’s no exception as the UK’s most popular indie band take the stage.

A sold out venue like tonight’s always has anticipation around it. There’s so much pressure on the band to either run their skinny jeans ragged with a set of hard rock and roll songs and give the sold out crowd their pennies worth - or completely balls it up. The Pigeon Detectives don’t quite manage the first but certainly don’t do the latter by any stretch.

Support band the Wallbirds make for an easy listening start to the night. With their brand of country bluesy folk they warm up the crowd well and get some fierce clapping but can’t distract them from what’s about to come (but then that’s the point of a support band). They seem to have a uniqueness about them that’s still mainstream yet still have roots in the country genre.

When the Pigeon Detectives take the stage, the air is rife with excitement as some two and a half thousand indie kids push and ram to the front to see their heroes of the moment. The band burst in with energy and certainly live up to that great live expectation that they aren’t afraid to remind people of.

The set has its highlights with crowd favourites such as Take Her Back and You Better Not Look My Way singing about young girls and older lads. With lyrics and riffs that are so simple yet catchy and just bang on your head all night, it’s like great classic British Rock and Roll the way we like it in the way we haven’t seen since the likes of Oasis and The Libertines. Just pure, honest rock and roll. It’s un-polished and raw.

Frontman Matt Bowman does everything a frontman’s supposed to do. He entertains and screams his guts out, whilst bouncing around on stage with a cheeky and youthful personality. Jumping into the crowd two songs in and getting his shirt actually ripped of his back doesn’t deter him as he very politely says to the crowd “Fuck you” after putting a fresh one on.

They really are a greatly entertaining band live. The music’s flawless with each note played to perfection as it’s heard on the radio nearly ten times a day by millions of people. Its indie-pop perfection; that great indie rock and roll thud followed by a poppy lighthearted sound. But something’s still missing. The set gets about half way through and the songs become slightly repetitive and seem to blend into one another.