Saturday 21/07/07 Good Shoes, The Lines, Paisley Riot @ Civic Hall Bar, Wolverhampton

It’s a night of local heroes, sound trouble and the excitement of first gigs at the Civic Hall Bar this evening.  Local lads Paisley Riot kick things off.  Blighted by technical hitches (amp trouble, quiet vocals), the band take a while to warm the crowd up.  With the dancefloor deserted apart from one lone guy sitting there cross-legged, it takes the aggressive guitars of mod-dedicated and brilliantly titled ‘Face Kicker’ to get a few dancing.  The set’s energetic and thrusting but the songs feel jumbled: too much has been crammed into each song.

It’s immediately clear that The Lines have a strong hometown following.  The once empty floor soon fills up, as front man Alex Ohm stands confidently in front of the crowd.  Not even mic failures could faze him as they move through the set of crashing cymbals, psychedelia and dance inducing hooks.  It’s dark and dirty indie disco that goes down a storm.  Crowd surfing starts during the anthemic ‘Domino Effect’ and chants of “We are The Lines!” erupt before the band closes with ‘No More, No Less’ and a stage invader.  From this reception it’s hard to believe that they aren’t headlining.

But no, Good Shoes are the main attraction.  Free from neon clothing, customised clothing and the like, the London four-piece are refreshingly gimmick free.  Diminutive at first, but soon warmed up, they rattle through their spiky-pop-punk tracks from album ‘Think Before You Speak’.  Singer Rhys Jones stops only to ask the blue light changes to white (“sorry to all the coloured light lovers but I can’t see my guitar”) and to salute the youngest kid they’ve ever had at a gig – it’s the eight year old lad’s first time.  Wolverhampton’s already boisterous tonight, but favourites like ‘Photos on the Wall’, ‘Morden’ and ‘We Are Not the Same’ take things to a whole new level.  Crowd surfers, dancers and general madness send tremors through the bar. 

It may be pissing down outside, but now not even this can dampen our spirits.