For the record, grunge is not dead. In fact, it's alive, well, and hiding out somewhere in the midlands, or so it would seem as Coventry band Thoria take to the stage after their two hour journey to get here. The city with three spires has hardly been heaving with new musical talent since Two-tone bowed out in the mid eighties, so it's a surprise when Thoria unleash their crackling sound into the audience, crossing the fiery abandon of the Pixies with fizzing basslines Lou Barlow would be proud of, and sprinkling the whole lot with a liberal shaving of classic Stone Temple Pilots pure-rock posturing for good measure. The set, though mainly based around tracks from forthcoming debut LP Worry Dolls (out in May), shows Thoria as a sparkle of gold in a bag of historic Coventrian dust.

Next onstage and all the way from Wales, Mclusky's reputation skulks before them as one of the UK's most exciting new punk bands, so it's unsurprising when they have the audience in the palm of their punka paws before the first track is over (that being one of the longer numbers in the set, clocking in at a full two minutes). Songs are belted out thick and fast from this frenzied three-piece like twenty pences from a fruit machine, taking such punk-rock subjects as 'Being on the television' and 'Carbohydrates' to new levels of hardcore abrasiveness. The result is, of course, fantastic. Hunt down their debut CD in your local indie bolthole record store before it disappears.

In short, this was a vital night of indie-rock abandon. Catch up with these two bands now, before they leave you twitching in their skull-splitting wake.

Karl Cremin

Live Reviews
The Music Bar