So, what do you do to enliven a dull Tuesday night? Rob a post office? Perhaps not. Buy a chicken korma ready meal from Marks & Spencers? A possibility but not an appealing one. Head down the Hug and Pint to see Who’s Olivia, False Friends, The Runaway Models and Cortnë? Now that sounds like a plan.
First on were The Runaway Models. You can’t, as a rule, go wrong with three boys making some noise for that is what The Runaway Models were and did. With the volume turned up and with a nod to the heyday of punk, they duly did their sub three minute thing.
False Friends followed with a rather more commercial approach to pleasing the audience. Their particular blend of hooks and choruses proved, with the addition of proper musicianship and regular nods in the direction of retro reverence, that they still make bands that only those with dastardly hearts could dislike.
On to Cortnë and it has to be said that this band might well be the sweetest band that I have seen of late. Their endearing songs of the heart were infused with the kind of sentimentality that is something of a rarity in these cynical days and Cortnë, herself, added an appealing vulnerability to their performance.
Rather less straightforward to analyse were Who’s Olivia. Weaving a more complicated texture into their songs than those who had gone before, they also drew much more from the shadows than the light to provide the power to move their music outwards. Perhaps not a band with immediate appeal to the many but one that had the potential to scale up to greater things.
All in all, not a bad way to pass a Tuesday night.