Live: Colours & Shapes. Team Me, The Lexington.

The Lexington's homely stage adorned with the "colours and shapes" cited in the evening's opener and a track beguilingly inspired by the progenitor of the telescope, Looking Thru the Eyes of Sir David Brewster, from the off it's beautifully evident that Norwegian six-piece Team Me are to provide more glitz and glimmer in an opening salvo than Grohl et al. conjured over an entirety of a specific '97 LP.

Not that there are all too many patent parallels between this and them. Instead, Team Me amalgamate the harmonious melodrama of Mew; the finely nuanced synth pop sensibilities of Those Dancing Days; and the irrepressible exuberance of Shout Out Louds' Howl Howl Gaff Gaff whilst bettering them all. Well, needless to say omitting Mew. Thus pinpointed as quintessential Scandipop fare, such standardised specularity purely attests to the musical strength of their native Nordic realm.

Origami polygons dangle amidst viciously brandished guitars (and of these there are a veritable legion) as a visually exhausting exuberance of youth is coaxed out from unfeasibly accomplished debut full-length To The Treetops! Bounding out in knackered Chuck Taylors, flutters of flute emanate from nymph-like lone female Synne's metre squared of stage, before the infectious, gash-inducing hooks and hooting of Come Down inject a little adrenaline into proceedings. Bassist Simen, the one of six to even vaguely acknowledge Scandinavian punk heritage in attire angsty enough to befit the perfectly awful Reading Festival takes a required breather, re-laces gaudy Adidas, and aids in conjuring a rhythmic onslaught of an intro to make Boredoms' ears bleed on an otherwise impeccably colourful Weathervanes and Chemicals. Patrick Wolf & Daniel Johns follows and, excluding a rippling keyboard refrain redolent of The Magic Position's pristine fiddle, barely resembles the work of either London's flounciest/ fetishist (mood and album dependent) or the polished junk of the ever-bulky Silverchair, instead coming across as poster-plastered wall obsession incarnate in faintly mawkish pop song.

Furthermore whilst the copious 'plinging' and 'plonging' provided by the likes of Dear Sister and a gloriously widescreen rendition of EP inclusion Kennedy Street, a musically formidable showing is discredited by the dubious employment of tribalistic smears of paint beneath every eye and the Aztec-ornamented bandanas that gird temples as again the foetid whiff of Richfield Avenue reemerges. Favorite Ghost meanwhile not only has Team Me wearing the Radiohead influence on the sleeve but has it burrowing out moth-like into mildly unappreciative air and although invigorating, as it blooms drummer Bjarne unfurls a rhythm so akin to 15 Step you can practically sense it clanging off of the drab walls of The O2. It's a perhaps flagrant comparison yet it's one that is, ultimately, complimentary for it's carried off with pivotal conviction as is the monumental crescendo construction of the Sufjan-stained Daggers or the devastating pop drops of single Show Me. It all goes a little Arcade Fire during an impromptu encore, with drums relocated to the outer echelons of the audience but then that Neon Bible was rather well preached once upon a time...