Walked into the Underworld at around 8 with Andy Sunfactor, who I’d met up with in the World’s End a half hour previous. Not only was the beer now £3 a pint (fuck me!) but the Babies Three had already been on 10 minutes! By the time I got to the floor they’d just said, “This is our last song.” A great shame as the last song was some full-on in your face hardcore that made me want to run around. Why they were on so fucking early I don’t know?! Met them briefly with Andy afterwards and they seemed like nice guys too.

Rydell were next and started off promisingly in a HWM-lite kind of way. A little bit rocking but only enough to make me tap my toes. The band, especially the bassist, seemed very much into it, moving around in circles and pounding their instruments. Unfortunately, for much of the time the singer (complete with annoying floppy hair and faux beard) stood pretty much still for the whole time and held on to the microphone constantly like he was Liam Gallagher or something. Only towards the end did he show some soul… To sum up, not altogether impressed but I reckon they could be hot if they just went for it and pushed themselves a bit more.

Onelinedrawing was last – one man, Jonah ex-Far, a guitar and his R2D2 robot drum machine. It was a cute toy that said “make some noise” and was used to good effect during the awesome first song, an almost flawless cover of Savory by Jawbox. Not knowing the music of Far at all, I wasn’t too sure what to expect from this show, but wow, it was majestic. Fun rockers mixed with some heartbreaking softly sung stories. Jonah’s friend Jacob came up and sang a couple of songs midway through including a cover of Birthday by the Sugarcubes which made me smile to the rooftops. You could have heard a pin drop in there.. cept for the two morons who insisted on talking at the back of the room. It was always puzzle me why people do that… Anyway, Jonah invited us all down to see his buddy play at the 12-Bar and I almost went… Instead I went home to a dream-filled sleep (you DON’T want to know ;-)

One note – fucking moronic bouncers at the Underworld literally shoving people out because they want to open their damn club. With that and the unbelievable beer price, this place is starting to go downhill.

--Chris