Part of a rising tide of artful dodgers and urban urchins to emerge from London’s post-Libertines pop scene, Jamie Treays treated a capacity crowd to a populist knees-up at the Forum on Wednesday. The atmosphere was joyously rowdy as excitable knots of youngsters bounced and bellowed along to rabble-rousing tracks, including Brand New Bass Guitar and the former single You Got the Money.

Backed by a ragged band, Treays plucked his acoustic bass and bantered with fans. Equal parts white rapper, street busker and music-hall comedian, the lanky 21-year-old built his show around this audience connection. “This is a song about you!” he proclaimed as the screens on his low-tech stage backdrop flashed gurning snapshots of friends, family and fans. The overall effect, perhaps deliberately, was like stumbling into a super-sized MySpace page.

Countless classic Britpop influences jostled for elbow room inside this lively set, but none dominated enough to expose Treays as a brazen copyist. From skiffle to ska, the Kinks to the Streets, Ian Dury to Pete Doherty, he sits firmly in a Londoncentric pop tradition of slang-heavy, boozy, ramshackle reportage.

Blur’s Damon Albarn acknowledged the lineage by inviting him to open for the Good, the Bad and the Queen last year. Lily Allen is also a friend, and the pair have recorded a duet together. Treays shares some of Allen’s class-blurring mockney attitude, but so far lacks her flair for polished pop hooks.

Once the initial buzz of his Forum set subsided, the traffic jam of scuttling rhythms and skeletal tunes began to grate. Lesser numbers owed more to the beatbox disco-punks Carter USM than Blur or the Libertines. Even his best songs, from the lolloping journey through clubland in Calm Down Dearest to the grim vignette of late-night violence in Sheila, felt scrappy and garbled. By singing in a breakneck jabber, Treays also undersold his key strength as a witty and inventive wordsmith.

Bedsit rockers used to dream of playing concert halls, but Treays seemed intent on turning the Forum into one huge bedsit. Though a kind of slapdash everyman amateurism is charming enough, it will not carry him for ever, especially not in larger venues.

Jamie T will need a few more great songs if he hopes to end up more artful than dodgy. Jamie T plays Glasgow ABC tonight; Sheffield University, tomorrow; Manchester Ritz, Sunday; then touring until May 3

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