The Script, Shepherds Bush Empire, June 17 BUSTED have got a lot to answer for. Gone are the days when looking good in a vest and the ability to lip synch while dancing were the primary qualifications for joining a boy band - now they need guitars too.

Irish trio The Script have made their mark on the nation's pre-pubescent pop fans with their Snow Patrol style anthems and pin up looks. Tonight's the middle night of their five night, sell-out run at Shepherd's Bush Empire, and a quick glance at the assembled masses marching across the Green says all you need to know about their fanbase. A queue of middle aged women and 13-year-old girls snakes around the empire before the doors are even open and the place is at capacity level before the first support band comes on. There's no bar propping or chatting – everyone's packed in, singing along to Take That and Leona Lewis on the PA – you can almost sniff the hormones and excitement in the air, which reaches hysteria when someone spots Alesha Dixon take her seat in the VIP section.

The band takes to the stage one by one, the shrieks getting higher and louder before tinnitus finally sets in when singer Danny O'Donoghue takes his place. It doesn't die down during opener Before The Worst – they even go mad for Billy Corgan lookalike guitarist Mark Sheenan.

Most of their debut album gets an airing, with O'Donoghue switching between piano crooning and singing into the crowd, touching the clammy little hands grasping at him. Hearing their first collection of songs in one go highlights their lack of stylistic ambition – the likes of Talk You Down and If You See Kay sound solid on their own, but played back to back they sound like a Maroon 5 covers band.

There are rock star ambitions nestling away somewhere though - they have a go at making a political statement ("This is a song about people being a victim of their own circumstances – it's something we've seen a lot back where we're from") with We Cry. They even go down the ego route - "Very rarely a song transcends music and changes lives like this one," says O'Donoghue as he introduces breakthrough hit The Man Who Can't Be Moved, but it's their encore that speaks most to fans.

With O'Donoghue sitting on an amp, the other two strum away on acoustic guitars for a ballad that prompts a mobile phone glow to light up the room, while their cover of David Bowie's Heroes gets the older members of the audience joining in.

They may be completely adored by their target audience but to keep hold of them they're going have to diversify – a few harmonies, less cliches - and then maybe even the gaggle of anxious parents waiting outside, craning their necks around the door, might enjoy them.