“I’m quite drunk,” lead singer Stitch tells us halfway through O.B.E.’s set, taking a swig from the bottle of wine that rests precariously at his feet. That might explain why they’ve been bumped down the order tonight, visiting guitar heroes Thousand Natural Shocks taking the lead honours after the advertised openers turned up late for their sound check.
They might have kept us all waiting out in the cold, but from the moment they take to the stage O.B.E. are on top form. ‘`Lines’ fires out a burst of staccato power-pop that brings to mind the often-underrated Dead 60s, but it’s ‘`Sex Offender’ that really gets the crowd surging forward to pogo along with its breakneck-paced, Franz-esque spikiness. Closing song ‘`Focus’ could be an appeal to the slightly bedraggled Stitch, but it doesn’t stop the crowd from chanting their names as they bring the set to an end.
O.B.E. offer us more than just a handful of well-penned tunes, however. Ambling around the stage, his head wrapped in the cord from his mike, Stitch gives a wildly energetic performance, probably fuelled by that bottle of wine. When bassist Kieran takes his shirt off halfway through the set there’s suddenly a large number of attractive girls dancing at the front, too. One of them manages to steal the mike for a few seconds, drunkenly entreating us to ‘`give some back’. She probably means to raise the atmosphere on the Cab’s sweaty dancefloor, although she might be appealing to whoever has poor Kieran’s clothes.
Thousand Natural Shocks finish the night off with some suitably edgy guitar noise, but the local boys are tonight’s indisputable heroes. As O.B.E. wander through the bar they’re stopped every few steps by hardcore fans and new admirers alike, although a few of the girls look a little peeved that Kieran’s found his shirt again. Raw, raucous, but instantly likeable, they feel like a band who are about to burst out of their shell. Sit back and wait for the explosion.
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