GIG: Wildcard - Monto Water Rats, 16th May

Tonight was surprising. So much quality, when your usual six-quid ticket has the odd decent band amongst much more average outfits. Tonight was the other way round completely. (Oh, and the sound wasn't crap either.)

Water Rats, at the heart of King's Cross, is a bit of a centrepoint for upcoming bands to show their stuff in the nation's capital, and has also seen the odd bigger-band action - Skunk Anansie played here last month, for instance. All these expectations are lived up to when I walk into the same room that Revolution are playing. The most ambitious groove-rock coated in very self-conscious contemporaneous vibes, their wall of sound smacks me straight in my face and makes me feel very small indeed. They may want to rename themselves the 'Wow' factor. Up next are Welsh punk-poppers Kick Box Riot - and the professionalism simply oozes as much as the laughs. The amount of charm Mike and the lads convey is enough to win over any cynic, but it's the tunes that are at the core. Spiky, angsty, boppy, with added hip. Definitely one who could easily get big, so keep your ears open.
I have sympathy for any band to follow these two - and it just happens to be The Centrals. Damn it, they could be great. The songwriting is all in place, but the talent isn't. Get a hold of your chosen instrument, and learn how to play it. The last song is grand, mind. So it's left to The Involved to pick up the audience's and my own attention. Their cathartic, arcing music leaves behind any traces of lesser bands of a similar sound, leaving only their own awesomeness. Their onstage timidity only acts to emphasize the enormity of their songs, and after a corker of an ending we have The Manhattan Project. 'Tell that DJ to turn off that shit music'. Well, they've lost me already. Sounding like the baby of Kasabian and The Enemy neither wanted to keep, they truck on with their own annoying arrogance and tired sounds. They're Northern so they can't be considered as Mockney, so they can be Mockgood instead.

Thankfully, the much friendlier Shortfall come equipped with some great songs. The anthemic radio-rock and onstage charisma does much to raise my spirits. So now the relatively new guys Wildcard are here to put an end to this evening's long night of live music... and this is their first gig as a band. Something great must've been in the cards for their headline slot then, and that's revealed instantly when they explode into the first song. Classic riffs, lofty vocal harmonies, elevating guitar solos; put simply, they have their shit together. The set is as tight as a drum, and even includes a cover of 'Boys Of Summer' that threatens to combust toward the end. The massive, full sonic arsenal they possess have them firing on all guns, never letting up until they finish (aggravatingly). Wildcard definitely have something to bring to the table, and this is just the beginning. Terrifying, really.

Overall - 9 / 10