The first band, No Through Road, were about halfway through their set but I managed to catch their last 4 songs. They were a bit too punky for my liking and some of the lead guitar solos were awful, I began to feel embarassed for them. Their singer, however, had a good gritty, grungy voice, but he himself was mostly static for the set. An instrumental, introduced as 'A Thousand Apologies', was probably their best moment but it didn't carry enough musically to be an instrumental, it seemed like they were just too lazy to bother with vocals and left it at that.

Next up were Sea Change, I managed to shuffle myself forward to the front of the stage where I realised that only half of the stage was raised, so No Through Road were probably not a 3 piece band! I'm a little bit ashamed that I hadn't heard of this band before because they played a great performance and their songs were just brilliant. Never before have the clichéd words 'wall of sound' really come into meaning until I had saw this band. With a sound slightly similar to Interpol, a mad guitarist who was swiping the backs of his arms up and down the fretboard frantically at points, a great, liberal singer who put a lot of effort into his performance and a female violinist just adding that extra something they were missing, they really did impress and were a great choice as Oceansize's tour support. Their songs, erm, sea changed dramtically from beautiful to mental and vice versa. Definitely a band to check out if you're unaware of them.

Oceansize came onto the stage, it was a weird experience for me, I had known them purely through their fantastic debut album - of which only has artwork in it, no pictures of the band or the names of the bandmembers inside it, so I had totally no idea what to expect. They set up their vast array of fx pedals, plugged in their laptop, tested out their in-ear microphones and teased us to short intro's from songs off of Effloresce and were eventually joined by their extremely talented drummer, who was accompanied with a pint of beer. Due to the stage being a bit on the really teeny, tiny side only 3 of the members could get on it at one time, the other 2 had to stand on the floor with the punters. Also they couldn't fit their keyboard on and were unable to play any songs which used keyboards. Guitarist/vocalist Mike Vennart gave the crowd some banter and that was it, we were launched straight into the deep end with 'Catalyst'. Watching the 3 guitarists playing the dead-note part in the intro is like watching a tennis match on a triangular court. Automatically they struck a match and let off a great performance which got better and better as the night went on.

I really can't explain to you how good Oceansize are live and I almost don't want to - you really should see them for yourself, and no I'm not copping out of actually reviewing the gig, you simply MUST see them live. They're even more stunning than on record. I was standing in awe at the drummer, even though I wouldn't normally give a toss what a drummer would be doing. I never realised how heavy their songs were and I was almost dreading the heavy riffs to come in 'Massive Bereavement' such was the state of the pit... On several occasions my friends and I were pushed on the stage, doing our best to not touch the effect pedals that seemed to litter the whole floor and anywhere that our hands, feet and bodies were going in the general direction of. At the end of their set, Mike just gave his guitar to the crowd and then falled with on all of us whilst we did our best to show our appreciation through hugs, handshakes and other things... Needless to say me and my friends all ended up dotted around the tiny venue and reluctantly left. It was a night I'll never forget.