Mothena - The Portland Arms - Monday 1st November

As Mothena's first headlining slot, so this was a good chance for the band to give people an idea of what they were like. As they appeared on stage soon after checking their equipment, they started their set with 'Black Market Babies', which consists of a fast tempo - hence the pits reaction to it. Clearly happy with it Nick gazes down at his shoes while Luke screams his lungs out. Danny breaks a sweat and Emma melodically hums away.

Next up 'Dolly Mixture' nicely explained to the crowd as Nick mentions "This song is named 'Dolly Mixture' 'cause when we wrote it we had a pack and Luke had never heard of it before…so there you have it" and then a short reply from Luke as "…Erm. Yeah well I'm not the only one am I?" Luckily for Luke, Dale is in the back who conveniently hasn't heard of dolly mixture before and quickly agrees.

However on with the music, 'Dolly Mixtures' fast tempo and riff goes down well once again with the crowd and all is good. 'The Ballad Of Billy Bump' is next and well, what's there to say, it's called The Ballad Of Billy Bump…

This one's a big shocker for the audience, out of the first collection of trashy tunes comes 'Numb' by Pink. Emma sings it quite peacefully; as she does the rest of the band seem to be finding it rather enjoyable, funny yet scary in some respect. A bit of a surprise but goes down reasonably well.

Danny carefully shouts instructions to the lighting man to dim the lights. As asked he brings the lights down to a low blue. And the start of a different more atmospheric version of 'Where I Sleep' enters their audience's ears. Off to a new start on this song it comes out smoothly and pleasantly, Luke's bass line catching many heads around it. Jeez I don't know about anyone else but that bass line was repeating in my head for days afterwards.

To finish off their set nicely they bring on their new song 'All Categories Related To Fuck Off', this later to be released on their new EP 'Black Market Babies'. As the gig draws to a close, four worn out people on stage give it all of what's left in them and send the pit into a small frenzy. Clearly influenced by bands such as 'And you will know us by the Trail of the Dead' and 'Cooper Temple Clause', the song lingers in the air once the it's ended, and the audience are left with Danny screaming through his mic for a further 5 minutes, I think someone must have slept well that night.

Nick R