The Berkshire band are making progress, booked for Glastonbury, finding themselves on Steve Lamacq鈥檚 playlist and recently supporting Athlete in a suitably athletics based tour. However on this showing, Athlete would run rings around Morning Runner, lapping them mercilessly and perhaps even finding time to skip the last few metres. While potential was occasionally evident, it was still very raw and all too often Morning Runner鈥檚 thrashing guitars drowned out what had appeared to be a melancholic song. The mish-mash of piano and loud guitars has worked for other artists but unfortunately in Morning Runner鈥檚 case, it made the songs appear rushed and trapped in limbo between wanting to be delicate and graceful and yet trying to achieve that whilst cranking up the guitars. The middle of their compact set, Burning Benches and Can鈥檛 Get it Right, were glimpses of a bit more subtlety to the band as the lead singer's raspy vocals came to the fore, particularly on the latter which sounded similar to Kings of Leon. However, whilst both songs were more rounded than the other five performed, neither seemed distinguishable enough to enjoy mainstream success. Standard indie rock fare forming the backbone of the set. It was hard to shake the feeling that Morning Runner have been decidedly jammy to have been catapulted from obscurity to supporting Coldplay in a matter of months and on a night when they were upstaged by one of their own support acts, it seemed highly unlikely that such a fate will befall Chris Martin and co this summer. | 
