Sunday 12/02/06 The Paddingtons, Dogs, Five O’Clock Heroes, Humanzi @ KOKO, London

Comfortably selling out the red ballroom dreamland that is KOKO, the crowd were up for making a noise and it appears tonight’s bands were up for making an almighty howl back. First up are Dubliners, Humanzi. Tracing their sound from a long lineage of rock that encompasses fellow Irish rockers Thin Lizzy via Jesus and the Mary Chain to Primal Scream, they stick to making a sound similar to a slap from your mother-in-law, loud and very raw. Humanzi are what Jet would like to be but miserably fail – a very decent rock band.

Five O’Clock Heroes are a schizophrenic mixture of XTC pop with a layer of Buzzcocks, topped with a sprinkling of The Ramones and a hint of The Knack. The lead guitarist pivots around the stage like an awkward teenager at his first disco. There’s a good band somewhere in there waiting to get out. A couple of tracks are decent with a nice line in memorable guitar hooks. Too much of their set however is unremarkable with meandering verses that don’t really fire up the crowd. During their worst track, the band sing “the night is going down” and there was a real danger of that if the song had carried on any longer. The influences shine in the better tracks and if Five O’Clock Heroes get rid of the shite then they could become something rather more special.

By the time Dogs saunter onto stage the crowd has swelled to capacity and the chant of “We are the Dogs, We are the dogs” is ringing around the venue. Wearing matching black suits, Dogs look as if they’ve just attended the funeral of someone they never really gave a shit about. The directness of the Dogs lyrics is their major strength, by the second song, we’re all joining in End of an Era, “what a wanker”. Dogs are in your face, and it’s hard to imagine they’d care if you didn’t like them. Some of the songs aren’t particularly strong but lead singer Johnny always rescues the situation with a nice sing-a-long chorus for the crowd to chant along to. There is more than a hint of Phil Daniels about Dogs with a speaking quality to their songs. The crowd on the floor are enjoying the Clash meets Shaun Ryder in a dark alley set and the final track is greeted ecstatically.

Headliners The Paddingtons manage to even out-attitude Dogs. The sheer power of their set is gobsmacking, like being beaten round the head with repeatedly with a large stick. For, count ‘em, 18 tracks the band maintain the same tempo. The driving force comes from the massive drummer Grant who drives the band forward, twatting the drums as if they’ve just insulted his mother. Looking like he’s been bred on a strict meat only diet, he wouldn’t let the band slow down even if they wanted to. Mind you Tom has enough strength left towards the end of the set to hurl a bottle into the mixing desk at the back (geek lighting guy was very upset). There’s more than a hint of Johnny Rotten about him with his incoherent ramblings between songs and pissed posturing. The biggest cheer comes for single ‘Sorry’ and everyone slurs along “Sorry/I hope you’re feeling happy now”. They bring on a violinist for a punk-rock track that the Pogues would be proud of. The Paddingtons don’t vary their sound much but their ability to maintain their assault on the ears is impressive. As we all stagger out into Camden with ears bleeding after a head**** of three-chord noise, a pilled-up chav falls out and slurs to his mate, “my ****ing head’s ringing”.