Lostprophets @ Lincoln Engine Shed

Lostprophets are a band steeped in contradiction. On one hand, they want to prove themselves to be the Welsh nu-rock heavyweights of festival main stages, with the riffs, choruses and haircuts to boot. On the other, they appear almost desperate to prove that they’re still a down-to-earth, loveable group of misfits from the valley, rough-housing it from town-to-town and living out of the back of a beaten-up tour van.

While trying to decide which of these two personalities to adopt, the band ends up being pulled in polar-opposite directions, resulting in a set frustratingly inconsistent and noticeably lacking in identity.

All this is accentuated by singer Ian Watkins’ irritatingly futile effort of trying to hide the thick, Welsh tones of his accent by singing with a sickeningly sun-kissed American accent. Lostprophets have been tailor-made to appear like an alternative band making their assault on the main stream, yet in actuality, they’ve had aspirations of red carpets, Radio 1 and rubbing shoulders with GaGa from the very start.

Opening with new track It’s Not The End Of The World, But I Can See It From Here and playing songs from upcoming album The Betrayed, their set lacks the initial, immediate impact one might expect from a Lostprophets show. Sure, they play the “big hits”. You know, the kind of songs with lyrics 15-year-old girls are going to set as their Facebook statuses and post on their Twitter accounts. But they arrive few and far between, with excessive on-stage tom-foolery and chauvinistic displays of arrogance breaking up the pace and leaving the audience to grow increasingly impatient.

Songs like Rooftops, Last Train Home and breakthrough single Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja elicit strong reactions, but there’s nothing breaking the mould here: it’s all very Kerrang! magazine 101.

While their peers, from My Chemical Romance to Fall Out Boy, have tried to show progression and growth over the years, Lostprophets seem to have stayed in the same place, relying on heavy distortion and optimistic repetition to drill their hooks deep into the collective subconscious.

From the stage, the band are constantly reminding us that this is their last show of the year, nay, the decade. If it’s anything to go from, I don’t think the next 10 years are going to be much different for Lostprophets. But in their eyes, that might not necessarily be a bad thing.