It was a cool summer night more cooler than the nights before, you could feel it at the line to get into Scala.

The support act of Gabe Gurnsey set the right amount of anticipation for the headline act of Australian band Confidence Man (whose album Confidence Music For Confident People is out now). The emergence of two men in their underwear and beehive hats got a cheer, it was the keyboard and drummer Clarence and Reggie (supposedly the brains of the outfit), but the main draw definitely were the lead singers, the delightfully deadpan and beautiful Janet Planet and the lean and bouncing Sugar Bones.

The opening song ‘Bubblegum’ set the tone for the night with its catchy and moronic lyrics, Planet is quite good at delivering lines that are a bit silly, the crowd were now bouncing. There were several costume changes throughout the set, most notably the cone shaped light up bra reminiscent of Madonna.

The standout ‘Out the Window’ definitely a song that showed this band can do songs that are well rounded, it had the undertones of Primal Scream and Deee-Lite, I hope it reaches a wider audience.

But Confidence Man (or ConMan for short) aren’t the sort looking for accolades, they just want to party, a C.O.O.L Party, they know and play up to this. This is clear from the ‘dancing’, both singers are probably not going to win the Strictly Dancing title anytime soon, but man do they give it 100 percent. It is so fresh to see someone dance so terribly and not be fazed by it. The song ‘Don’t You Know I’m In A Band’ is a screw you to all those that question their credibility and relevance.

Just as the party was in flow it came to an end with Janet going into the crowd and instructing all to sit down and then jump up to the final build up of ‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’ ironically shouting get down. Indeed the crowd did get down and up and down and up, it was that kind of night, a night of fun and being dorky and nobody does it better than Confidence Man.

Rating 4/5

Confidence Man @ Scala London 08/08/2018