Four Year Strong, Meg & Dia and The Colour Fred

ROCK

In case you missed the memo, pop punk is cool again, and judging by those on this Give It a Name festival spin off tour, beards are too.

But the trouble with all four bands being rotating headliners is that inevitably at some point in the tour the best known groups will be on first. This is the case tonight. Four Year Strong are head and shoulders above the others, and are, ludicrously, on second. After a series of massive singalongs, and some strange interpretive dancing from the crowd, there’s a mass exodus and only a handful of vaguely interested kids (presumably waiting for their mums to pick them up) are left to watch Meg & Dia and The Colour Fred.

Dwindling numbers aside, tonight highlights the pitfalls of getting big fast on the internet: bands who aren’t quite prepared are catapulted from oblivion into countries they’re probably not ready to tour. Still, this is ‘Introduces’ and everyone on the bill shows an inkling of potential. A bit more practice, a few more gigs and a lot less time online definitely wouldn’t go amiss.