I’d been waiting for so long for Vanilla Pod to return to the Phoenix, after they pulled out of their last show in January, so I was going to enjoy this night no matter what. And luckily I did.

The first band of the night was No One Wins The Prize, a band consisting of four emo, Tom Delonge look-alikes. As far as I’m aware, this was their first Phoenix gig, and it was enjoyable, although, to be honest, nothing new. Think Funeral for a Friend/ Lost Prophets 10 years younger and you’ve pretty much got it. Still, their performance wasn’t at all bad and it was a good start to a great evening.

The Whole Truth, self-described “Plymouth Punk” were up next and pulled off an absolutely blinding set. It was singer Ralph’s last gig before leaving the band for personal reasons and he certainly went out with a bang. It was the best performance I’ve ever seen them pull of, the crowd responded amazingly and gave Ralph a great send off. The best song of their set had to be “Public Transport” which brought a smile to everyone’s faces.

Whole Truth warmed up the crowd real well, so when Burning Coalition came on, they also had a good crowd response. They weren’t overly outstanding tonight, but were still good, with some catchy punky riffs and the short but energetic “More Hardcore Than The FBI” which is an old BC classic.

Unbelievably, by the time Vanilla Pod came on, the Phoenix had emptied considerably, but they either didn’t notice, or didn’t care, and played an amazing set, with lots of stand up comedy between songs. The crowd took a bit of encouragement to get going (I guess they were pretty exhausted from the last two bands) but once they got going there was no stopping them. The lead singer was like a puppy dog: bright eyed and incredibly enthusiastic. He started a little karaoke with one of the songs, and spent the set jumping around like a hooligan. Vanilla Pod were so full of energy and played great song after great song, so it wasn’t surprising I had to (literally) drag my friends out when our lift arrived.

Everyone had a really great time, and I have only one question: When are Vanilla Pod back again!?

Written by Luce