Augustines - Roundhouse, London 08/12/14

It’s hard to get people excited on a Monday night, especially in the lead-up to Christmas. Yet lead singer Bill McCarthy is having none of London’s not-very-enthusiastic-start of the week nonsense and is hell bent on eliminating the flatness that permeates through the first few songs of the set. This is Augustines’ night, remember. Setbacks, including many personal tragedies, have plagued them in the past, but there’s no way that they will allow anyone to stop them enjoying every second of this. Despite everything momentarily becoming something of a rock pantomime (“I can’t hear you! I said is everybody having a good time?!”), the powerful and honest songs slowly bring the Monday night crowd out of their shells.

For much of the set, I find myself wondering who Bill McCarthy reminds me of, and then it clicks. With his passionate, booming voice and the amount of sweat that pours out of him as he runs up and down the stage, as well as the persistence in which he throws his whole heart into every song and the boundless energy that comes with it, it is all so reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen. “Philadelphia (The City of Brotherly Love)” is the song where it all seems to slot into place, where the anthemic chorus induces a mass sing along, with beers and hands in the air and phones glinting from all directions. Yet it also sees the beginning of a trend that will continue throughout the rest of the evening, where each songs gets dragged out much longer than is necessary, refrains come back again and again, and instead of just playing out the songs in their 3-4 minute glory, they get strung out to the point where they nearly collapse.

Even though there are moments where the power of the songs is lost in this rampant self-indulgent exercise, it does, admittedly, work wonders on one or two particular songs. “The Avenue” is a prime example of when their formula works, and where the passion and honesty that lies behind their songwriting is perfectly demonstrated. A stripped back performance that sees only McCarthy and multi-instrumentalist Eric Sanderson on the stage, its stops, starts and refrains give the performance a certain intimacy lost among the bigger, anthem-fuelled choruses that take up much of the rest of the set.

The night’s brought to a close by an elongated encore that spans an hour, and sees Sanderson exercise a bit of a leap of faith. The fact is, if you’re going to jump into the crowd for a spot of crowd-surfing, you have to be 100% sure that someone is going to catch you. Sanderson is not caught straight away, but picks himself up and ends up spending a long time dancing around in the crowd in a fit of excitement.

It all seems to be a bit too much for Augustines. Their sound is perfect for this kind of venue, and their songs are meant to be sung at the top of your lungs, but until they learn how to best harness their excitement, they will still come across as being too eager to please. 2015 will undoubtedly see them rise to new heights once again - all they really need to remember is that sometimes less is more.

• Photo by Gaëlle Beri. See the full gallery here.