Hard-Fi emerge from behind a rippling red curtain, but they couldn't be less theatrical. A bunch of aggressively laddish lads who could be anyone from their own audience, Hard-Fi boast in Richard Archer a deeply unappealing frontman seemingly unable to write a song that suits his range. He gargles through ludicrously chewy estuary vowels: I Close My Eyes finds him waking from a heavy night's drinking, splashing water on his "fayayayayace". He moves with the charisma of a drunk man dancing alone to a pub juke box.

Someone should tell them, too, that the ghastly terrace-chant backing vocals that form the hook of current single Suburban Knights - delivered live by the band even more charmlessly than on record - are reminiscent of the tinny, boy-band funk of MN8's hit I've Got a Little Something for You. Bassist Kai Stephens behaves less like a rock musician egging on his fans than a hooligan inciting a riot at a football match; there is a horribly uneasy edge to his voice as he yells into the crowd, as if at any point things could turn very nasty indeed. Hard-Fi, it seems, are the braying mob; are everything anyone ever ran into the arms of rock'n'roll to escape.

I Shall Overcome, which we know is meant sincerely because Archer straps on an acoustic guitar, feels utterly leaden. Can't Get Along (Without You) - you can't hear the parentheses live of course, but they're still annoying - should soar, like prime Dexys, say, but it plods. What Hard-Fi do best is plod, offering an escape from the quotidian plod of unheralded lives through big, brash, terminally plodding music. They are selling the most safe, sanctioned, banal form of rebellion, and they leave you with the dismal feeling that rock'n'roll changes nothing.

· At Hippodrome, London, tomorrow. Then touring. Details: www.hard-fi.com