Right can I go now? Oh. The other bands. Ok, well tonight was actually quite a nice surprise. Although Birmingham is home to some quality homegrown pop-punk acts support was provided by two rising hopefuls that’re coming up through Swansea’s future-legendary Mighty Atom Records. And although Bolton’s Appease have been plugging away for a short time now, supporting all manner of cult underground US bands that might travail through the North / Midlands’ little punk venues it seems all their hard work is paying off, thrusting forth a set filled to the brim with head-nodding melodic teasers from their forthcoming album. Punk fans remember their name.
Previous ‘ones to watch’ and currently ‘next big things’ Hondo Maclean do an impressive job at melding together one of the UK’s best underground hardcore metal acts Medulla Nocte with one of the US’ best underground hardcore metal acts Drowningman to create one heck of a righteous head-caving din. And the fact that both these aforementioned bands have long split up makes Hondo Maclean all the more compelling. As their vocalist twists and contorts his pin-up structure around ‘Mortal Kombat’ before running headfirst through the crowd and onto a table without missing a beat, you can feel assured that, thankfully, when it comes to heavy melodic music, Wales is not just confined to the pretty boy rock of Lostprophets.
Which brings us nicely to Matchbook Romance, although after reading the opening paragraph there doesn’t seem much need to expand further. Despite the Academy Bar being only half full, those present – which surprisingly don’t consist solely of school-kids! – are thoroughly loving it, throwing themselves fully into their friendly candy-coated Epitaph-handbook melodies. In fact, MB might just be too happy, vocalist Andrew Jordan stopping after every single song to gush over how happy he is to be over here, to be around so many new friends, to meet so many cool people; that his dream to tour with The Ataris came true in Europe blah blah blah… C’mon! Play the next song already! Man. And the Ataris of all bands too!
But although this review may be more likely to turn you off Matchbook Romance, watching them tonight their luscious deep-rooted harmonies and pummelling distortion just seems a million miles away from the insidious tripe that The Ataris seem keen to force on us. And that can only be a good thing.
