Ciaran McFeely, a one-Kid band from County Cork, has arrived at the right time to bag a place in the new rock order: after years of false starts, the zeitgeist is finally favouring pop's awkward and unconventional. "Ain't nothing average about me, man," he insists on tonight's strident showpiece number, Average Man.
Well, no, there's not. Though currently a household name in only one household, he is already entering his concept phase. His three nights at the 12 Bar Club aren't mere gigs, they're themed happenings, with titles such as tonight's "Simple Kid Brother," for which his guitar-playing sibling Al is roped in.
Frazzle-haired and baseball-capped, Kid and brother seem the picture of adolescent nerdiness. Ciaran, who despite his peachy looks is nearly 30, plays up his haplessness, claiming he'd forgotten his manager had booked the shows. It's clear, though, that he's not as simple as he seems: his writerly instincts vie with a love of the spotlight.
Ciaran is essentially a storyteller in search of a tune, which he doesn't always find in these denuded acoustic versions of songs from his first album, 1. Deceptively diffident monologues, about everything from his drum-playing flatmates to his encounter with a poet called Selina Saliva, are charming. But let Al pipe up and Ciaran's hackles rise, albeit gently. Now this, Liam and Noel, is how to do sibling rivalry.
Musically, though, they are of a piece, Al's rumble harmonising edgily with Ciaran's wispier voice. There is no compelling evidence of what advocates have called Dylanish qualities, just plenty of pretty, dippy ambles through Ciaran's life as an Irishman in London.
Supertramps & Superstars, a sneer at the Camden scene, is the most melancholically Irish. Kids Don't Care rasps countryishly, and his most emphatic moment, Breakups Breakdowns, closes the show on a ponderous high. His parting shot is to have a fan tell a joke about a duck. Ah, but will he still be as approachable when, as seems likely, Simple Kid becomes simply big?
· Ends tonight. Box office: 020-7916 6989.
