Allister - Live
Hidden in Plain View / The Early November / Homegrown
Tuesday 20th of January 2004
The Drive-Thru records invasion tour hit Portsmouth’s Wedgewood Rooms with an explosive riot. First band on, Hidden in Plain View, set the pace with an enormously poppy punk set with thundering rhythm and sparkling clear vocals.
The band clearly wanted to get involved with the audience and spent most of their time thrusting at the edge of the stage. HIPV are part of the drive-thru genre of melodic fast punk and will certainly interest fans of label-mates New Found Glory.
Next up were The Early November, who continued the theme, albeit with a different spin on the style with more moody guitars and a slightly less rocky image.
The Early November finished by handing their guitars over to the other bands and their crew and dived off in to the audience, from which they emerged several minutes later and soaking wet.
Home Grown last appeared at the Wedgewood rooms supporting Something Corporate and come across as a serious version of Blink 182. With an album full of pop-punk teen-anthems, their set was an energetic interpretation of the record.
This set also featured, at one point, the naked forms of the previous band who emerged from the shower to perform an impromptu stage invasion.
Allister were the most unique of the bands on offer, with a fusion of punk-revival, like Greenday used to perform, and fast-punk. The resulting punk-rock'n'roll was phenomenal and at least half the songs competed to become your favourite.
With a performance that dragged the crowd right in to the action and songs that turned all the fans in to the backing vocalists, Allister absolutely rocked.
All four bands were top-notch examples of their genres and if you haven't heard of them yet, you will soon.
(
)Author: Saur
Venue: Wedgewood Rooms (Portsmouth)
Found in: Live Reviews