Otherwise were supposed to play tonight but cancelled unfortunately due to the drummer playing some other gig (I think!). Good to see the other guys down there though. It was reasonably busy tonight for the Gameface show but nowhere near as packed out as it was last time… doesn’t bode well for the Underworld show next week but we’ll see..

Travis Cut were first on. They’re an awesome live band but sound remarkably different to how they sound on their new album. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. They’re pretty slick on record but rougher around the edges on stage… maybe slightly more aggressive. The best thing for me about Travis Cut is that they have a knack of playing a song once and the chorus (“I hope you’re doing badly. I hope you miss me madly.”) is forever imprinted on your brain :-) They were great last night, as usual, and opened with My Idea Of Fun, but there seemed to be this invisible line that people seemed afraid to cross. It’s that whole standing it packs thing – no-one wants to be seen as taking the lead. No-one wants to be laughed at…. Anyway, the point is that this band deserves to have people going crazy for them down the front but that’s not happening. Severely underappreciated….

Pylon were next minus the keyboard they’d introduced to us in Leeds last weekend. Apparently the keyboard player (who’s usually the bassist!) is on holiday in Turkey (or Torquay – I couldn’t tell which it was haha!). Jarv from Dugong is on bass however and is filling in ably apart from one utterly cringeworthy moment towards the end of the set where the song they were playing threatened to come crashing to a halt ;-) Anyway, I feel incredibly lucky to be able to go see this band because they seem to get better with every show. Through the alcohol haze of last night I think they opened with “A million thousand giant steps” from the EP.. the one that goes “I want to bury you” anyway and I’m singing along happily….They follow this up with another EP track, “Wind reel and print”, one part of which always reminds me of Buffalo Tom for some reason. As I said to the guy who remembered me from a Dismemberment Plan show AGES ago, “If they just came on and played the EP from start to finish I’d be a happy man. The good thing is though that the new stuff is just as good if not better. Full of giant swooping choruses and hooks to make you smile so wide the wind changes and you stay like that :-) The best moment still comes when they pull out “Says Al” though – a lot of people’s favourite Pylon song. Can’t wait for the album – I truly think it’s going to be something very special…

Gameface were last on tonight. I still have heard little of this band despite having known about them for ages. I did recently buy a couple of their albums off Thackers though so I really should check them out more. The problem I had with Gameface tonight was that they just seemed ordinary and most of the songs sounded very similar and lightweight to my ears. I loved the solo EP that Jeff released which contained some Gameface songs and they sounded fantastic and fresh on there… However, when the band arrangement is in there they blend in and disappear with the mass of similar sounding bands. They seem to be a genuine and sincere bunch of guys though so I don’t want to slag them off too much…. It’s not that I dislike them – they just seem ordinary to me. I suspect that if I knew all the songs backwards and sideways and what not, I might feel differently.

--Chris