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Once In A House On Fire/Omar's Silver Lightship/Anderson/Mad Library

Cavern Club, Exeter - 16/8/04

A private party, kind of.

The only of tonight’s bands that I hadn’t heard before were Once in a House on Fire and they were on first. As it happens they were also pretty damn fantastic. Spiky post-hardcore with a dual vocal sing/scream (and then some more screaming) assault with so much enthusiasm and energy that I couldn’t even keep up with them. Angry boy music to lose yourself in, possibly forever. I want to hear more. I need to hear more.
9 out of 10




As ever I’m going to be accused of prejudice here but I think Omar’s Silver Lightship are fantastic. They were fantastic as an instrumental band and they’re now fantastic as an, um… vocal band? My vocabulary has gone completely. Damn. Oh well, never mind. The point is they’re good. My few gripes are still with the vocals. A lot of the songs follow a very similar vocal pattern, some of the older songs sound better without vocals and Chris sang the wrong song on one occasion but they’re getting better every time they play. The music sounds as brilliant as ever. The drumming was excellent, the guitars led the music well and the bass was funky and distinctive, you couldn’t really ask for much more.
9 out of 10




Yes, I noticed the t-shirt. Y’see, last time I reviewed Anderson I gave them what I thought was a respectable six. Especially considering I’m not a big punk fan and I’ve given big bands like Tsunami Bomb a seven before now. Surely six for a local punk band isn’t a bad score? Apparently it is though and there was a lot of hoohah about the whole thing and, while I may be dreadfully mistaken, I can only assume that the t-shirt stating “Punkéwrong” was the culmination of this. Thanks guys. As much as I want to give them a zero just to see if they’ll paint the words “Punkémon sucks” in six foot tall letters on the side of every building in Exeter I can’t. Last night, in a smaller venue, sounding much tighter and less cocky into the bargain they were good. Very good in fact. Fast, fun punk with no agenda. It’s still the McDonald’s of music, an instant hit of flavour without any real fulfilment, but it was good. And when the band I least like at a gig is this good you know it was a really good gig.
8 out of 10




I love Mad Library. They’re great. It’s impossible not to dance to them. It’s like the bass lines come up through the floor, grab every tendon in your legs and force it upon you. At the same time though the saxophone cracks your skull open rendering the rest of you defenceless to dancing like a rag doll (assuming you dance as badly as me), the drums force your head to nod on pain of death and the keys make your elbows tingle. It’s kind of like sex; sweaty, immense fun and slightly embarrassing in retrospect. I still think they sound their best with a vocalist (look out for the upcoming Dom Coyote gigs, listings can be found here) but this was the best I’d ever heard them as an instrumental group. Never mind the bollocks, here’s Mad Library, the best band on the local scene.
10 out of 10