Thursday 21 January 2010

625 HOME GROWN, Allister, The Early November, Oxford Zodiac, Monday 19 January 2004

A trip to Oxford for a gig I'm probably years too old for - a quartet of young "punk" bands, or what passes for punk these days. Perennial punk rocker The Big Man was enthused, and I quite liked Home Grown's fun video for their single "You're Not Alone", so off we all went! Missed opening band Hidden In Plain View thanks to a trip to Bodrum Kebab for Rich's dinner, then hit the venue and stayed in the bar for painfully young emo troupe The Early November, playing to the full and painfully young crowd of hoodies and punk kids. I liked their enthusiasm if not their disjointed and forgettable take on shouty emo rock. Allister, next up, at least played all together and put on a more coherent and professional performance of their generic new millennial scuzzy punk pop. They weren't bad, but I'd forgotten all their tunes before they left the stage!

Final act Home Grown kept us waiting till gone 10, but put together an energetic performance of emo punk pop, somewhere between Jimmy Eat World and Blink 182. Again, a little generic, but their best number "You're Not Alone" was a cool sing-along, although I could've done without the bad Britney cover. At least I think it was Britney - it was so bad I forgot it! All in all, not a bad night out, but hardly one to threaten my top 10 gigs of the year...

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