大象传媒

A Northern Light only started gigging in July, but release EPs at a rate of knots, releasing two in the space of time it takes other bands to argue about choice of band name. The Right Thing To Do EP is being released tonight, six months after Chase the Ghosts Away EP came out in October.

It's an unexpected and brave decision to start the show with the title track from the EP. It's being presented as the brand new release - although fans of the band will have heard it at previous shows - but if you start with the song that everyone is supposedly waiting for, where is there to go from there? It shows a confidence in the rest of the material although that confidence is not immediately evident onstage. The boys take a while to get into their stride, as do the audience who tentatively move closer to the stage with each song, beginning with polite applause and building up slowly to the whooping and hollering level.

It's quite the musical mixture. Dressing like college rockers and resembling a very young Green Day, things kick off in a kind of pop-punk fashion, all upbeat and raucous, moving gradually into Joshua Tree-esque shimmering guitars and moments of thoughtfulness. The set is carefully constructed with each song seemingly growing from the last, passing via Screamager-era Therapy? in 'A Touch Aggressive' to end with a prog odyssey and a singalong. It's a clever show of songcraft too. Songs are being brought to an almost dead stop, then raised to a heart-racing crescendo. Each song has at least one hook, with a tune you can remember and words you can believe in and catch hold of, clutching them as they're powerful yet vague enough to mean something personal and different to each audience member.

The stage in Auntie Annie's isn't an ideal one for a frontman. Singer Darren Doherty is shunted off to the side instead of being in the middle which gives the act an odd imbalance. He overcomes this with his almost evangelical zeal - most apparent in standout track 'A Mother's Call' - and apparent complete belief in the music. Ennunciating clearly, driving his message home, he's someone who actually wants to be a frontman instead of remaining coolly aloof. And in these days when aloof is the thing, well, isn't it refreshing to see something different?

They're young and look it. It isn't the busiest Auntie Annie's has ever been and there are some falterings but there are also moments of sheer brilliance held together by Doherty's voice and the completely unnecessary but very enjoyable showboating drum solos. As 'Chase The Ghosts Away' descends into an almost prog-rock jam they've metamorphosed so much from the first song that it's unclear if we're watching the same band that took to the stage at fifteen minutes past midnight, but it's a band very much worth watching.

Elizabeth McGeown