I decided to do something a little different with this review. This review takes the form of three open letters.

I invite you to read on and enjoy.

Dear Pocketlips,
I’ll be honest, chaps, I did not know what to make of you when you first hit the stage. You reminded me of a Nu-Rave Run DMC, and although everyone else in the crowd seemed hugely happy to see you, I will confess to not knowing who the hell you were. I must say as well, some of your songs seemed a little self conciously coated in pop-culture references, something which I think you have to be very careful when writing and something I don’t think was done to it’s best effect. However, I must be fair and say I didn’t go to Central last night to review you musically – I was there to review your live performance.

And I’ve gotta say, it was excellent. You have a genuinely anarchic presence about you on stage (and off stage, in the crowd, on the speaker stacks, and everywhere else you flung yourself), which made the thity minutes you were on stage an unrefined joy to watch. While I wasn’t (And I’m still not) sure what to make of you musically, you deserve to go far, just based on how much you clearly love performing, love the music, and love the crowd.

Thanks
Chris

Dear Hadouken,
Thanks so much for letting me review your show last night, and indeed for bringing some excitement to a cold Sunday night in Wrexham. I didn’t have a photographer with me last night, but I’ll admit I did spot a detail on the list saying photographers couldn’t use flash. That’s fine, but when your lighting rig consists of a strobe light and a series of zillion watt bulbs, that seems a little ridiculous. Actually, those lights are a bit of a barrier between you and the crowd, it must be said. Because of their brightness and positioning, I spent the entire show squinting at a load of silhouettes which meant that I didn’t feel like we connected.

Truthfully Hadouken, I didn’t think you were all that special. Yeah, you got the crowd going, and the atmosphere in Central was phenomenal, but I felt like you plodded at times, and without the magic of the mixing studio, your songs seemed flat and a little uninspired. The old stuff was brilliant, I’m not denying that; but I couldn’t help but feel that while you were by no means bad, you weren’t as exciting as I thought you might be. Maybe on a bigger stage those lights might not be such an assult on the retinas, but I’ve gotta say I wasn’t totally convinced. As I’ve said previously, it’s not often you hear a crowd that loud (Or as young sounding), but I’m afraid I wasn’t exactly blown away.

Thanks
Chris

Dear Crowd at the Hadouken gig,
I give up. Please find enclosed in this letter my Young Person’s Club membership card; I just don’t understand you any more. Why anyone would choose to wear a duffel coat with a pair of knee length, skin tight jeans in the middle of October I don’t know.

I’m 23 years old and I’m very, very old.

Thanks
Chris