Saturday 27/09/08 Lovvers @ Port Mahon, Oxford

Shaun Hencher of Lovvers tame snarl was a refreshing antidote to so many other singers acting as emotion salesmen... "It's Saturday night, time to party. Pee. Eh. Are. Tee. Why." Then he was off convulsing like a marionette to Henry Withers' buzzing guitar and Steve Rose's tumbling drum-beats. On the rollicking 'Human Hair', Hencher sang... "I am a man, live by the sea, I  know a girl who lives up a tree".

It's a funny world, where we've evolved out of fish and monkeys to witness Lovvers' refined essence of punk. It looked great, with Withers' backwards cap-peak a shadow on the wall. The band also bobbed in and out of frame in the mirror behind them. It was a pity that the audience was so small, but still some kind of triumph in the face of mono-culture... "Thanks for coming out to see us tonight, instead of staying in with X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing”.

Later tonight, the U.S. Presidential candidates were to have their first televised debate. Lovvers closing song was a pessimistic reminder, slowing things down from the previously frenetic pace, hammering home the point... "No hope, no change, you're both the same". This sounded like a wake-up for those taken in by Obama's cult-like sound-bites. Lovvers scatter-shot attack on the zombie-homogeny in 'culture' was admirable, from American politics to British TV.