Noize Pollution

Lured by the prospect of quality music just five minutes from my door, I head down to The Railway Pub, where up-and-coming SE London based record label, Eat With Your Eyes (www.myspace.com/eatwithyoureyesrecords) have organised a showcase of some of the best local talent. The night begins promisingly with Dead Media (www.myspace.com/deadmediaband). They may look weedy, but the noise that these Year 11s make is incredible. Ginger Spice is a short sharp burst of punk perfection, while Letters is pure sex in music form – it grabs hold of you and practically forces you to gyrate. Haters of Brian Molko will find singer Joe Quirke’s voice a bit grating at times, but their music more than compensates for this. Now if only they could ditch that annoying song that has stolen half of Smells Like Teen Spirit…

The next band, The Ebs (www.myspace.com/theebs1) are a little too metal for my liking, and very very hairy. Their performance is enjoyable enough, particularly their cover of The Hives’ Hate To Say I Told You So, but they seem too enamoured with their own rock ‘n’ roll excess; their jumping off amps and hanging from the rafters is too staged to be endearing. For any bands out there not wishing to make the same mistake as The Ebs, heed this advice: If your drummer has man-boobs, please don’t let him take his shirt off. The jiggling is frankly disturbing, and puts most people off their beer.

Scarred for life, I eagerly await Little Sid (www.myspace.com/littlesiduk), tonight with added bonus of Broadwalk’s charismatic frontman Mark Allen, covering for regular bassist Jim O’Doherty, who’s swanned off to Prague with his school choir. Opening with the addictive Overreaction, that screams hit single, the band easily catches the attention of the crowded pub. Their blatant love of playing their music is infectious, and combined with their cute banter with the fans, creates an amazing atmosphere. Little Sid are known for their quality indie covers, and tonight is no exception, with faultless versions of The Zutons’ Valerie and Reef’s Put Your Hands Up. The perfect simplicity of She Sings In Her Sleep’s chorus gets everyone singing along, but the real highlight of the night is Woman. The crowd shout the lyrics so loud that at times singer Jono Linden can’t even be heard, while guitarist Stuart Harris and drummer Andy Fox get everyone dancing crazily. At the end of their too-short set, the squealing from the crowd is deafening.

After all this excitement, The Pepys (www.myspace.com/thepepys) subdued tracks seem anticlimactic. Of course, they’re not bad - in fact, if you go to their MySpace right now, I promise you’ll be impressed – they’re just lacking the energy of the previous set. Half the venue clears out after Little Sid finish, which is a shame really, because The Pepys definitely deserve to be seen. If they’d been on earlier, I’m sure they would have been much more appreciated, but despite The Pepys being top of the bill, it’s clear who tonight’s real headliners are.