First up are the two local support acts, The Polite Underground and Showing Tonight. I'm not into pointless band bashing, but let's just say these bands are another in a stream of carbon copies for bands that were popular more than a year ago (The Polite Underground of The Libertines and Showing Tonight of Enter Shikari). Cringe-inducing yes, but that's kind of what everyone expects teenage bands to be anyway, so I won't begin to rip into them but it would've been better if we had a couple of punk bands on the bill in their place to keep the flow running.

Die! Die! Die! set up on the stage without their drummer. I begin to think they'll play without him after people keep telling me how wrecked he was... I was beginning to get really disheartened because on the recordings he's perhaps the most crucial aspect of the band and my friend turned to me and said "If you came from New Zealand to play to about 16 people, would you actually give a shit?".

But just as that depressing sentence hits my ears I notice the drummer walk to the stage with bits of kit, water bottle in hand, and looking very fucked. After he over-carefully sets up his kit, singer/guitarist Andrew Wilson introduces the band to the pretty vacant room (even the support bands have left), "We're Die! Die! Die! ...and today's been pretty interesting!"

The band (who are quite aptly all dressed in black) begin with the title song off their second album, 'Promises Promises'. I'm positioned in front of their bassist who begins playing and starts pacing back and forth in front of his amp, whilst almost hitting me in the face with his bass guitar. I have a feeling he knows that he's doing this, but in a masochistic kind of way, I like it. Then Andrew Wilson throws his guitar on the floor whilst it lets of a shrieky siren from his delay pedal, grabs his microphone and launches himself into the "crowd" whilst being ignorant to the fact that those few who are standing at the front are now all tangled in the microphone's lead as he violently pulls it to sing and explore the venue much like Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav did here a few months ago (to paint a picture about the state of Bedford's music scene: even that gig wasn't completely sold out). There might only be a few people here, but encouragingly Die! Die! Die! do actually give a shit.

For a three-piece punk band, they have a fairly unique approach to going about making their sound. The bass is solid and relentless throughout the set, whilst the guitar is sparsely played and the drummer rather sheepishly counts in the band by lightly clicking his sticks together before songs but it has to be said, he does really well to sound just as good as he does on record despite how wasted he still looks halfway through the set! The singer modestly stabs the guitar every now and then, cleverly choosing his moments when to attack. The only thing I could safely compare it to is perhaps Erase Errata's style on their latter two albums - where instrumentally, the bass and drums steal the show.

It's good though, because now the band are unrestrained and their performance is really energetic when the guitar is put down in favour of the chance to jump off the stage and sing into the mic on the floor. I'm still quite occupied with the bass guitar that's entertainingly still JUST missing my head while this is going on though. They pummel through 'A.T.T.I.T.U.D' which is probably the set highlight for me with bassist Lachlan Anderson playing really aggressively whilst crouched down at his feet.

Just shy of a half-hour, the band stop and begin to pack up. Tonight was a teasingly short display of the band's power. I was glad they performed as passionately and dangerous as they did, despite the turnout and I guess it can't really be helped, what with the 'Promises Promises' not released here yet. I leave happy, and notice that those few who are here are all cheering and a lot of them bought copies of the album from the band. Die! Die! Die! are due to return to the UK in July so keep an eye out for their tour dates and keep your fingers crossed for a longer set and better turnouts for the band.