HMMM. One bookish looking fellow with a laconic turn of phrase; one moptopped guitarist with all the right Sixties' influences; and a workmanlike rhythm section which ably supports the clever song structures. It could only be one band, and that band, of course, is Gene.
No suggestion of any similarity to a certain Manchester combo which also featured an erudite singer and a genius guitarist; and, if you did suggest, it, then Martin Rossiter would be quite within his rights to beat you about the head with a copy of Oscar Wilde's complete works.
Gene's second visit to Dublin was not the triumphant return of the conquering heroes, but a gentle reminder that Rozzer and the boys are still around, and still determined to turn our common or garden view of Britpop into a vision of grandeur.
Now that we know all the songs on Olympian, last year's debut album, we can follow Rozzer's clarion calls to disaffected swots everywhere, and Haunted By You is an eminently suitable anthem, a third level version of London Calling.
"I spent thirteen years of hell in a town called Watford", reveals Rozzer, as he introduces Sleep Well Tonight, a biting song about yob bonding. London, Can You Wait? hangs in the air like a loaded question, but Gene answer with the very direct Cast Out In The Seventies, a new song which attacks the Thatcher era with autobiographical zeal. Since Lady Thatcher has disappeared into history along with that seminal Manchester guitar group, the song seems like a case of kicking the stable door after the dragon has bolted.
Other new songs like Speak To Me Someone prove that Gene are fighting fit, sharpening their pens, and honing their musical and lyrical swordsmanship. They're still playing the same old sport, however, still striking the same stance and still thrusting at the same targets. For The Dead is a reminder of Gene's earliest moves, and it seems more immediate and cutting than some of their current, overskilled efforts.
The world might soon be ready, however, for Gene's studied style of Britpop, and the band could find a place on the chart curriculum along with Pulp's collegiate candour.
If we can just put that other band from Manchester out of our minds for a couple of minutes, we might even find that this year's model also says something about our lives.
