The Boy Least Likely To – Hoxton Bar and Kitchen, London 16/12/10

The choice of openers perhaps suggested a night of challenging noise-rock wasn’t on the cards- The Candle Thieves sounded like Fyfe Dangerfield fronting The Feeling- but Jof Owen’s band take sugar coated indie pop to new, diabetes-inducing levels. Which, for a Christmas gig, is not necessarily a bad thing.

Naturally, the band took the opportunity to showcase their new Christmas album (pleasant enough), and managed to fit in a couple of rather faithful Wham covers for good measure. But as always it’s the songs from their first and best LP, The Best Party Ever, that truly brought the festive cheer- from ‘Monsters’, a touching ode to the people of Aylesbury to the almost painfully chirpy “country disco” of ‘I’m Glad I Hitched My Apple Wagon to Your Star’.

And despite being played to death on that oh-so-twee ING Direct advert, ‘Be Gentle With Me’ is still as effortlessly charming a piece of winsome pop as you’ll ever encounter. They’re perhaps a little short on variety, and they’ll never win prizes for lyrical substance but The Boy Least Likely To’s twinkly charm is the perfect tonic for this season of goodwill.