The Lock, Stock & Barrel has been well established on the local live circuit for quite a while now and most bands will tell you they enjoy playing there because it is small and compact placing them close to their audience creating a charged and intimate atmosphere which they are able to feed off. This was obviously already happening as we arrived. Mosquito were in full flight and buzzing (sorry, couldn't resist it) in front of an impressive back-drop and initially I thought the sound was a little muddy (which I put down to the room) but nevertheless punchy. Fully fledged rock chick Emma Hudson was the main focus delivering the band's hard edged indie tunes with her own individual style and sense of fun, her strong vocals ensuring she coped just as well with The Raconteurs' "Steady As She Goes" and The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" as she did with Pink's "Leave Me Alone". The first set came to a close with "99 Red Balloons" which I thought suited Emma's voice very well and as the much deserved applause died down the band proceeded to scramble about on the floor around the drum kit to recover a missing lens from Andy's glasses which he'd unfortunately sent flying.

 

 

sometimes)  accompanied Feeder's classic "Buck Rogers" but one of the highlights of a hard-hitting set was a cracking version of The Hives' "Hate To Say I Told You So" in which Chris Rowbotham, thoroughly enjoying himself, reproduced Nicholaus Arson's guitar sound with eerie precision (on a Gibson Les Paul at that) and the whole song was accurately played beat for beat ably directed by Emma Hudson's air drumming. Good stuff. The Kaisers' "Ruby" and a 100mph "Chelsea Dagger" (with more jumping around from the very professional review team at the back) brought the set to a close and the night was finished off with a 4-song encore during which Chris swapped the Les Paul for a similarly impressive Flying Vee for The Killers' "Mr Brightside" and the band gave its first public airing to their version of The Pigeon Detectives' "I Found Out". We thought perhaps they should have started the encore with the latter so they could build it up and finish solidly with something they were more au fait with but it obviously didn't matter to the Lock Stock crowd who gave the band a great reception.

 

Mosquito kicked off their second spot with The Buzzcock's "Ever Fallen In Love With Someone" with Andy Brow's kit cutting through powerfully, the bass drum combining well with Rob Jaques' bass runs and rattling the rib cage as it should. Andy later told me that he uses triggers rather than mics - a neat trick, and one which I hadn't come across locally before, but nevertheless one which I thought worked wonderfully. Wheatus' "Teenage Dirt Bag" was about as low tempo as things would get tonight and then it was back to full throttle with "Love Machine" as dancing broke out down at the front. Much jumping around both onstage and off (and amongst the review contingent I'm afraid - we just can't help ourselves