Theme / Milphobia @ Bannermans

An optimist would tell you the room's half full tonight. A pessimist (in this case a realist) would tell you that the room's not just half empty, but that it's what they call, in venue-speak, "dead". With headliners Sweetheart pulling out in the eleventh hour, support bands Milophobia and Theme are left to entertain the dwindling handful of punters. Milophobia, a young bunch, manage to pass a half hour with smatterings of heavy metal (the type with the guitars tuned real, real low) and some world-record distance spitting from vocalist Chris (to the dismay of some ill-placed audience members). Theme, however, fail to impress. Unlike Milophobia, these lads saw away their youth long ago, but despite their age, their music lacks the maturity you would expect and they sound as samey as any other guitar, drums, electric organ and raspy-voiced-singer-based pub band has in the past. [Paul Traynor]