I'm sure there is a conspiracy amoung members of London Transport with me as its target. Due to this I missed The! Lights! Alive! who I quite wanted to see as they were enjoyable the last time I saw them play. Never mind on with the show!

Woe, well I saw these guys at the Golden Shoe in the summer and was not impressed at all but tonight, a healthy dose of two joints en-route to the verge gave them a different edge. I also think the fact that the sound was a lot more professional helped them no end. Imagine FUGAZI, with a saxophone instead of vocals and some more experimental slower bit. In their favour they appeared to give it their all with the saxophonist generating notes at both end of the spectrum in a single breath. Woe I woud have to say are an acquired taste, and frankly I enjoyed it because I was stoned off my box, and their intricate jazz-hardcore was all a bit trippy.

So I regain my composure by trying to hold conversations (and failing), and San Quentin started. Well for all of you who bear a passing resemblence to species of the welsh valleys, the general consensus was that San Quentin were shit. At the time I said I hadn't seen them before, but as I reviewed them here earlier this year they were obviously a memorable band first time around. Apparently this was their last show, which perhaps was why they appeared to dragged the last song out. Musically they played a brand of stop-start emo-rock which is reminiscent of early SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE, sadly they didn't do it very well.

So the main event, Dead Inside! What can I say basically another accomplished performance by 'the inside' (or should that be 'the dead'?). They really gave it their all with Scott delivering great back up vocals that I'd never noticed when I'd seen them before. The new material was good, and if you've never heard them, imagine BLACK FLAG meets THE NEIGHBORS meets ETA with more screaming!! Basically thrash hardcore (with tunes?) that won't let itself be tethered in the old-school paddock for very long. It was all rounded off with an Iron Maiden cover which was excellent, although I'm annoyed that I still can't remember which song it was. A good night, and apparently it went on until 2am, but I went home to get some kip.

--Ben