Axis of Awesome: Viva La Vida Loca Las Vegas

Regular Fringe-goers will easily recognise Axis of Awesome, who have been performing here with consistent success since 2008. Well-established practitioners of comedy rock at a Fringe where musical parody is hardly in short supply, when the band comes onstage, it is clear they are playing to the enthusiastic fanbase that has turned out in force. Any straggling newcomers may be welcome, but they are not pandered to in quite the same way. Instead, the audience are expected to indulge the band, who present what feels like thirty minutes' worth of serviceable material, stretched out to twice that time.

This may lie in the band's roots as a YouTube sensation. The online video platform has helped kick off countless creative careers and boost the profiles of those whose esoteric talents might otherwise have struggled for exposure. Yet it has also helped foster a kind of act that does not work well outside the confines of a short, sharp video, and consequently struggles to sustain an entire live performance. Such is the case here.

The band's strength is the comic chemistry between the members, which helps feed the playful ribbing that breaks up the setlist. The patchiness of the songs themselves cannot be ignored however; lacking here is the sprawling creativity of Bill Bailey, or even the juvenile charm of Tenacious D. Their greatest (perhaps only) success remains the viral hit 'Four Chords', although even it has grown over-familiar since its release in 2011. Devoted fans or not, some acts should stay on the internet.