In fitting with the evening, I was very nearly an emo-kid...the first band nearly made me cry. And not because they were terrible, but because their set was so passionate. Their debut gig - introducing Kiss and Tell. They began with 'Book of Centuries' - a fast moving song with a great guitar riff. The highlight had to be their self-named song, 'Kiss and Tell', which was extremely catchy.

Think Alanis Morissette gone emo, and you have Uproot, the second band of the evening - a female -fronted emo-core quartet. Syd, the singer, has an amazing voice and really impressed the crowd. Their first song had to be their best: 'All That I Am' was a really catchy, anguished couple of minutes of fury and regret, with great bass lines and amazing lyrics.

Next came Second Monday. This band are beyond talented - signed at sixteen and described to me by a member of Kiss and Tell as "legendary". They really gave a good show; the only band to get people moved enough to start dancing. Interestingly, they had piano interludes in between a couple of songs, which I was anticipating as kind of bad but actually sounded pretty good and were a nice intermission between the songs. Their best song was 'Day In The Life Of'. It began very slow and sad (nearly made me cry again) and developed to a heavy melody.

Finally came Phema, the headliners of the night. It?s been said over and over recently that the genre ?emo? is becoming more and more manufactured and there are no bands that come into their own anymore. But Phema are an exception to this rule, and the minute they began their first song I could tell immediately that they were something different, almost with a hint of ska slipping in to the singing. I was very impressed by this band, and they seemed to be crowd favourites this evening.

It was a good night, and - apart from me, and despite the Phoenix was full of emo-kids - there were very few tears!

Written by Luce