So I’ve already been drinking for about four hours because it’s the last day of the football season, and lo and behold Grimsby get relegated with two minutes of the season to spare. Gutted is not the word. Still, the (punk rock) show must go on and whilst relegation has soured the day, the evening can only get better. The first night of the Punktastic Tour hit Bradford with Poindexter and Echofreddy looking to hit the town with their pop-punk wares. Unfortunately as we turned up we realised the venue had double booked and 8 bands would have to fight it out in three hours. What was that about getting better? Thankfully, due to the hard work of promoter Si, the evening passed off with 20-minute sets and a healthy crowd – so what could have been a disaster turned into a decent evening. Bands got paid too, so credit where it’s due – give the promoter a pat on the back for salvaging the situation!

To be honest I had consumed a couple of jars before Echofreddy took to the stage, so my memory of the first band is somewhat hazy; suffice to say they were crap and left absolutely no impression at all. Actually the three local bands I did see were bloody terrible and hopefully not indicative of the Bradford scene. Still, ECHOFREDDY took to the stage and the Manchester pop-punkers soon had the crowd eating from the palm of their hands. More pop than punk, the quartet have already had comparisons to Busted and with plenty of harmonies and pop hooks it’s not hard to see why. The guitars chug and Rob’s vocals are really spot on, suggesting a very bright future. As a reasonably young band EF still have plenty to improve on – their stage presence isn’t quite where it could be and you could argue that they don’t yet have a killer song, although ‘Another Goodbye’ is still a strong weapon of partial destruction. They made quite a few new friends tonight and I get the feeling EF have a very healthy future in front of them. (7)

After another piss-poor local act, with a drunken frontman resplendent in a Star Trek outfit (I shit you not), Brighton’s POINDEXTER take to the stage and lash out a quality set of aggressive pop-punk. ‘Identikit’ sticks out a mile (and dedicated to the Punktastic forum users) as the band thrash around with twiddly guitar bits aplenty. Taking an edge to the typical pop-punk sound, guitarist Chris is dressed in a Leatherface t-shirt, and while they’re not quite in the same style, they’re more punk than pop, to use the same analogy as their tour buddies. Although the sound is muddied Poindexter do very well to hold the crowd’s attention, especially seeing as though the vast majority of the crowd have come to see four local bands and not the PT tour. Ho-hum. Expect them to get better as the tour goes on. (7.5)

I missed Ninepoundnote and Dudefish sadly, so maybe someone else can fill in the blanks, but good work to Si for pulling the whole thing together when someone else dropped him in the shit. As for the rest of you, catch EF and PD at a venue near you over the next two weeks…

Paul