Suited and booted á la The Hives? Or socks on cocks á la Chilli Peppers? No, tonight’s headliners North Horizon take a somewhat more laidback sartorial approach: they all wear woolly hats.
But of course the clothes don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got the tunes, more of which later. Because first band up on an interestingly varied bill tonight is youthful three-piece The Hollow. Despite being together for only two months their front man’s haughty vocals and the slightly dark, understated rock with echoes of the likes of JJ72 and Interpol suggest there might be better to come once they gain experience.
Which is something the lead singer of next band Mitch seems to have in abundance, despite this being only their second gig together as a unit. Switching comfortably between electric and acoustic/mouth organ style songs, they play a strong set of impressive original material before telling us they’re going to do a cover by their favourite artist. Who shall it be, we wonder: Elvis Costello, Billy Bragg, Dylan? They then proceed to bash out Richard Ashcroft’s ‘Song For The Lovers’. Shows what we know, then.
Which brings us back to the headliners, who are here tonight to launch their self-funded debut album. Playing American sounding mid-tempo rock, North Horizon immediately call to mind bands such as Matchbox Twenty. And while in these garage-rockin’ times it might be easy to scoff at them, they nonetheless display impressive musicianship and undeniable songwriting ability that could yet see them getting played on daytime radio. Who knows, they might even launch their own range of woollies.