大象传媒

So, this is what happens when you ditch alcohol and posing scenesters! It's a real testament to Practice Makes Perfect, the team behind tonight's show, that there are hundreds in the Nerve Centre for a local music night. Granted, it's an all-ages show and for most of this, typically ignored, audience this is their only proper night out. Still, Northern Irish music is on offer and the crowd are eager.

I arrive just after opening act Future Cities! (great band name!) have started. A 4-piece from Derry, they mine a fairly solid furrow of fast, punky guitar music but it's clear that they haven't quite found their own true sound. The songs shift between emo, hardcore and...er...Pink! On stage, the band are enjoying themselves but the crowd seem largely disengaged...the stage presence is a bit tentative and there is a lack of urgency in the songs. With all of that said though, there is obvious ability, bags of potential and the makings of a really good band so I'll be interested to see where they go from here.

Next up, The Dirty Jones. I see a Ramones t-shirt and I lazily expect punk but I get churning classic guitar riffs instead. Normally, this results in spasms of contempt but there is something distinctly primal and bluesy about what The Dirty Jones do, proved seconds later when the entire crowd spontaneously forms a massive mosh pit circle. The bouncers are in straightaway to stop it but, for the rest of the song, the circle remains unbroken and they are baited with a mixture of swaggering struts and the sporadic busting of moves. Tellingly, this energy dissipates when the band break into a cover of a Velvet Revolver song. The crowd are more interested in the band's own music. Again, frontman aside, the band could afford to loosen up on stage but it's not a bad set at all.

Proceedings take a sudden gear shift when The Wonder Villains step on stage. It's extremely rare that a band emerges with such an effortlessly natural pop sound which radiates optimism and, crucially, is free of cynicism. Eimear introduces "Running in Circles" as '...our very first song...' and it's mesmerising! Now augmented on guitar by Future Chaser's Ryan McGroarty (his first gig as a member of team-Wonder Villains), the band's live potential is realised as never before. They sign off with an explosive rendition of "Oh Peter".

Cutaways have been occasional visitors to the city over the last few years so a local audience might be forgiven for taking a few songs to get warmed up but the crowd rushes back in as they strike up their first song. From the get-go, they have them in the palm of their hand and, lo-and-behold, there's that mosh pit circle again and this time it catches the bouncers off guard! From here on in, it's one off-kilter pop gem after another drawn from debut album Earth and Earthly Things and punctuated by brand new songs. "Lovers are Lunatics" stands out in a flawless set that is just too short for their new fans! Great night all round.

Stephen McCauley