Camera Obscura @ ABC, 21 Apr

There's a tartan rug draped over an amp, the band come onstage to the sounds of Donald Where's Yer Troosers and open with an anecdote about Hamish MacBeth. Are Camera Obscura, perchance, Scottish? Regional accents are certainly big business these days, but Camera Obscura's ultra-Glaswegian vowels and sepia folk shufflings are perhaps taking things too far. Songs like Let's Get Out Of This Country are not without their charms, but the show feels somewhat archaic, from the band's Little House On The Prairie outfits to the almost comical reliance on slide guitar, Camera Obscura come across as quaint, their songs doing nothing to dispel twee Scottish stereotypes. Yes, it's pleasant enough, with the ABC's glitterball lending the waltzy numbers a trippy, underwater feel, but there's absolutely nothing new going on here, and the overwhelming feeling is that hundreds of people have paid to be thoroughly sedated on a Saturday night. Vital, it's not. [Heather Crumley]