When I see bands like Two Day Rule and Halo Friendlies, I remember that although the rock industry is mostly male-dominated, there are still some awesome female rock icons around - and no, I don’t include Courtney Love in that equation…

Yes, it was a night of girl power at the Phoenix! Although the first two bands consisted of males, they knew damn well that this was a ladies night, and that they came second for a change.

Maybe that’s why Whole Truth, the first band to hit the stage that evening, seemed a little disjointed. This was the first time I’d seen them since their former singer Ralph left, so I didn’t know whether to expect the usual good standard, now that the bassist, Ed Hall, and guitarist, Charles Hinchliffe, have taken over vocals. They pulled it off pretty well considering they’d only had about a month to learn to learn all the lyrics to the songs, and I was quite touched when they got Ralph up from the audience to sing an old Whole Truth number (from singer to groupie, you might say…). They didn’t really seem to be putting their best into the performance that night, and weren’t as good as they usually are, but were still enjoyable nevertheless.

Next up came Orca, who were kind of the odd band out, being the only group you couldn’t really skank to! Their emo-kid attitudes really stood out tonight and they gave an absolutely astounding show. I have not once seen Orca perform badly; in fact, they nearly seem to get better every gig they play. This was, without a doubt, one of the most electric shows they’ve ever played. The emotion they put into every single song was beyond surreal; you could literally feel how much they believed in what they were doing. Their new song – Punchline – was excellent, with a brilliant, strong bass line. Very contagious!

Some people are gonna think I’m stupid now, but have you found your band? You know, the band that you hear once, and kind of fall in love with immediately? Well, Two Day Rule are my band. Whether you’re a metal-head, or a goth, or an emo-kid, or whatever, you cannot fail to like Two Day Rule. This band consists of three real tall men (Neil, guitarist and vocalist; Craig, bassist; and Matt, drummer), and then the real small, petite Andrea Kenny. But for such a small person, she has the most amazing voice I have ever heard. And talk about charismatic. This band put so much enthusiasm in every song, it was impossible to just stand there and not dance. And I wasn’t the only one who thought that. The crowd went crazy for Two Day Rule, and rightly so. The highlights had to be ‘Nothing Serious’, a blinding tune, totally full of energy, and ‘Waiting For The End’, a raggae/ska slow-dancing (slow-skanking?!) kinda song, which was beautifully melodic. And despite me managing to fall into the microphone during an overly exertive bout of skanking, consequently smashing Andrea’s mouth and nearly dislodging the odd tooth – Two Day Rule totally stole the show.

Yep, they even outdid Halo Friendlies. To be honest, I was fairly disappointed by them – they were just another Californian skate-punk band. They weren’t bad; they just weren’t anything new. The music was happy, and they were all pretty talented, they just didn’t seem to have too much of an onstage presence. But what they lacked in onstage presence, they certainly made up for in looks. They all looked great, which is probably why most of the guys in the audience were getting all excited. A couple of songs were kinda catchy, they were a cheerful band, and it was good to see "girl power" and all that malarkey but they certainly weren't as good as I was expecting.

But still, it was undeniably a great night. All it was lacking was the Spice Girls…the ultimate girl band. Shame they couldn’t make it.

Written by Luce