The maladjusted young of the 1980s looked for comfort to the Smiths, whose main role was to assure British youth that, no matter how miserable they were, Morrissey was way ahead of them. There was a perverse glamour to the Smiths that is absent from modern-day functionaries such as Good Charlotte, who offer the same bleak prognosis without the cerebral coolness. Sadly, their unappetising "nu-punk" is big among America's teenage dirtbags, and getting big here.
Did the baggy-shorted crowds who stuffed the Astoria not care that these Maryland drudges admit, on the sleeve of their album, The Young and the Hopeless, that they are "no better than any other band out there"? At least they're honest - they are no better than any of the schlep-rockers who make a virtue (and a fortune) of having been unpopular at school. So why have they sold out two nights at one of the capital's high-profile venues? Either their audience sees itself in their four-minute spasms of self-flagellation - in which case the NHS had better stock up on Seroxat - or they simply enjoy their dopey moshability.
It's hard to dislike Good Charlotte as individuals, especially given their open-hearted generosity towards their fans. Singer Joel Madden, utterly anonymous in black utility-wear, groped for the right words: "You guys are ossome. I'm proud to say I'm a citizen of the United Kingdom." The place erupted as if he had said: "Ich bin ein Berliner" - but then, every pronouncement had the same effect.
So, bewilderingly, did the music. When Madden told them to wave their hands during the no-brainer chant-along Girls and Boys, they did; when asked to sing the a cappella intro to the trundling homicide-fantasy My Bloody Valentine, they shook the foundations. Something in these generic stompers, which were delivered with zero panache (the bassist was so unabsorbed, he played facing the back wall), speaks to the terminally bored.
One can only assume it is a feeling of camaraderie with Madden, who traipsed through everything from the supposedly satirical Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous to a stolid cover of Oasis's Acquiesce with the same glazed half-smile on his face. This was an undemanding display in which the issues Good Charlotte like to wail about took a back seat to thrashing populism. "Ossome" it was not.
· At the Carling Academy, Glasgow, on Friday. Box office: 0141-418 3000.
