Tuesday 21/10/08 Exit Calm, Domino State, The Galvins @ Hoxton Bar and Grill, London

In a music scene where bands can headline a festival of the back of one album, where so called indie heroes are farmed at private drama schools, and the cut of your jeans is just as important as your musical influences, there surely needs to be a reversion to the days where bands wanted to make music for the love of it and not just to find their fortune and glory. Thankfully Barnsley, of all places, might have just found the answer.

But before we get to the main event, northern lads The Galvins start the night of. They play a very nostalgic set of nineties Brit Pop style songs, which leave very little to the imagination. If you was there the first time round and listened to anything by the  Cast or John Powers previous incarnation the La’s you’ll find yourself very much at home with these songs, but for the rest of the audience it’s enjoyable upbeat music but just a little bit tame.

To bring us back up to the 21st century, Domino state try very hard to achieve Verve style grandeur yet seem to fail at the last, leaving them sounding more Snow Patrol.  Their sound is strong in places, but just doesn’t fill the room. Instead it stays confined to the stage very much like the front man’s faux passion, which fails to make any connection with the audience.

With the niceties now over the crowd wait in anticipation, as The Doves anthemic classic The Cedar Room begins to play out swagger Exit Calm, like their about to headline Wembley. With no introduction they launch straight into ferocious opener, ‘Don’t Look Down’, their music is instantly arresting, a powerful yet ethereal wall of sound, underpinned by a heavy bass groove. Unlike most bands who attempt such epic musicianship, the singer is not lost amongst all the swirling guitars. Instead Nicky Smith’s presence is bigger than the sound the band is making. Like every good front man he needs no instrument to hide behind, he is lost in the music feeling every note that is played, yet still mangers to passionately deliver his brooding lyrics.

Rob marshal’s control over his guitar is astonishing, as he frantically plays he produces a relentless sensory onslaught, which leaves you transfixed, yet still manages to produce some very delicate and intricate melodies.  As ‘Higher lining’ begins the haunting intro is spine tingling until the bleeding guitar kicks in and blows you away. It’s a song that would easily sound at home on the Verves debut L.P ‘A Storm in Heaven’. As Simon Lindley settles into another bass groove for ‘You’ve Got it all Wrong’, Nicky goads his band mates into playing louder and harder, building the intensity of the performance. The crowd seem unnerved by the sheer force of the music yet all gently nod along in unison, until the set ends on their forthcoming single ‘ We on Our Own’.

For a band that has only released one single, they already have a live show that is unrivalled by any other new band. What sets them apart from the rest is the sheer intensity of their music and their passion for playing it, as Nicky recently said in an interview “We mean it. No ****ing about.”