Saturday 09/11/02 The Cordettes, The Moonies, Jesse James @ The Masque Theatre, Liverpool

The Inner City Sumo night's hosted at The Masque Theatre are becoming one of the most popular events for underage revellers that Liverpool has ever seen. Despite being overshadowed recently by the splurge of A tour posters pronouncing the "real" Inner City Sumo tour, the ska and punk, art and junk night is drawing in top names from accross the country. This particular night pulling in the band responsible for the currently most requested video on Kerrang! TV. The night isn't all about big names though, as the host Pete Bentham, who is also our compere, likes to open the show with a young, inexperienced band and give them the chance of a lifetime, playing to a packed out crowd.

Three gorgeous young ladies mount the stage and stand in front of the mics, they strap into their guitars and within seconds they're letting out the gruffest vocal hooks that beautifully crash against a wave of garage punk guitars squealing like pigs into wind tunnels. Or was that another gig? Erm... The Cordettes unfortantely don't feature in this fantasy.

This being only their debut gig we can only be so judgemental. Their guitars aren't in tune and their vocals are extremely poor in places, but there is an undying hope for this quartet, backed on drums by the younger brother of someone who was once in the now defunct Fuzzwah. Up front the trio of girls on vocals and guitars hold the crowds attention nicely as we're taken on a noisey trip that touches base (although a quite untuneful base) with Hole and The Breeders.

One song holds up well though, their penultimate and crowd favourite 'Black Mascara', whose spoken word lyrics are unnerving and enchanting at the same time, like some kind of film noir theme tune with a sarcastic twist. All in all though some confidence pills and a guitar tuner is required.

At the other end of the spectrum is The Moonies, who just seem to go from strength to strength every time I see them. Only occasionally losing it on their singular plodder of the set, the rest of the time they rock out of control. Scissor kicks and melodies are their speciality with teenage anthems such as 'Record Store' and current single 'Cool' whipping the young crowd into a frenzy.

And who can help it when front man Steve is everywhere, on his knees, in the air, on the drum kit and hyper-active sidekick Ryan (bass) is egging the crowd on at the front of the stage. It's unbelievable that this band are a three piece, such is the power that they project both sonically and visually in their performances. Surely nationwide chart success is the only direction this band can head in now?

Kerrang! TV favourites Jesse James, a - for all intents and purposes - ska band, with a three piece brass section have managed to drag a hundred or so school kids away from a Saturday night in front of the local late night grocers and a 2 litre bottle of cider and into the Masque. These boys seem extremely popular right now and rightly so, because their energetic and witty performance is faultless and the crowd are skanking like little bastards at the front of the stage. Unfortunately, I just hate this bland generic pop ska punk that Rancid have unleashed onto the western world.