The Teenagers are a French band originally from Paris and are now based in London. They possess a knack for developing catchy retro-synth beats and have an enthusiasm for bad language and girls. Their lyrics are occasionally decidedly offensive referring in most cases to sex, alcohol and drugs. Despite this for some reason their French accents seem to lighten the blow of the initial impact of the words they are saying.
They are certainly a fun group to watch, both in their performance style and their image on stage. The stage seemed fairly bare without the drummer present in the background. The group as a whole consists just of the bass, the guitar and synth, the vocals and an ipod for the drums. They have a look which is similar to that of a geeky teenager with the polo shirts and large 'Deirdre' glasses but they certainly are not teenagers or even slightly geeky.
They kicked off their gig with a slight mishap involving their fourth member - the drum machine - but after they over came the rhythm issue it was all go. Although their set was fairly minimalist and charmingly simple their impact on their audience was never faulted by any lack of dramatic presentation.
They rattled through their set playing songs like F*ck Nicole, Sunset beach and Starlett Johansson - probably one of their funnier songs lyrically ("you whisper in horses' ears, I always found that rather exciting"). We must always admire bands that can jump the wall and successfully encourage members of the audience to involve themselves in the band's performance.
The Teenagers (pictured) are certainly fans of this method; they exercised this technique particularly well during their single the Homecoming pulling a girl from the front row on stage to sing the chorus over a pre-recorded vocal. She seemed to enjoy the attention from Quentin the lead singer as well as the backing from the crowd. All their songs seemed rather amateurish in the musical performance simply because their musical arrangement was so basic, but this added more charisma to their show overall.
They're returning to Glasgow in October at a slightly larger venue. It will be interesting to find out just how many girls they will try and fit on the stage there!
© Lauren Quinn. 30 August 2007. First published at www.Edinburghguide.com
Images courtesy of the band's website