I can’t really put my finger on it, but tonight was a weird one. Maybe it was the low crowd participation contrasted with the high turnout, heightening my suspicions that while this was the place to be on a freezing Tuesday night, hardly anyone there really knew why… Or maybe I’m just being far too pessimistic – hell, a great turnout on a weeknight at a punk gig with no local bands; that’s a great result no matter what. Plus, it wasn’t even as if I was an expert on any of the acts either.
Kicking things off was Huddersfield five-piece Decades. Not knowing what to expect, it took me a few songs to decide that they placed neatly between Head Automatica and Taking Back Sunday. It was clean and catchy pop rock, full of plenty of hooks and vigour. Unfortunately they weren’t able to keep up the momentum for their full set – towards the end it seemed more and more like they were a one-trick pony. There are only so many staccato guitar parts one band can get away with. However if they can mix it up a bit in the future, I can see them gathering quite a following.
Starters took to the stage next, and managed to up the tempo and cause a bit of a stir, while still maintaining a strong pop edge. Imagine Brand New’s Your Favourite Weapon mixed with dashes of Man Overboard and The Wonder Years, and you’re kinda close to Starters. Impressively catchy but with an overall ‘punk’ ethos, these guys seem to bridge the gap between two scenes which will ultimately work in their favour.
My cynicism rears its ugly head again for tonight’s solo effort, Koji. Now, I must stress before I make my point that Koji seems like a really nice person. I mean, he probably is a really nice person. I just found his between-song dialogue a bit contrived, and a bit staged. I guess if it’s not an act then I’m going to look like an idiot, but just like some celebrities play up to their accents, I did feel he was exaggerating his…niceness. To the songs though; it was accessible and stripped down acoustic pop, with a fairly decent voice to boot. Reminiscent of Mike Park in places, a pleasant and impressive set.
I caught the end of Such Gold’s set a Fest last year, but didn’t really think much of them. Taking the bad sound at The Venue’s side-stage into account, I wanted to give them another chance, and this time they were a lot better. It still wasn’t anything ground-breaking; there are more accomplished melodic punk/hardcore bands, but Such Gold still have some good tunes in their arsenal. Sitting quite comfortably between Canyoneer-era No Trigger and Four Year Strong, this tour could easily win them a host of new fans.
Going back to a previous point, I did find it confusing that, while the crowd did get a bit lively for Such Gold, I couldn’t really work out who 90% of the crowd were here to see (there was certainly limited crowd reaction to the other acts). It’s obviously not a bad thing that the punters were out to see some new music; I just couldn’t help thinking that a lot of them felt like they had to be there. However, despite my pessimism, this was an enjoyable and surprisingly varied night.
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