Saturday 23/10/04 The Subways, The Holy Terror, The Detonators @ The Vine, Leeds

Impressing the organisers of Transmission, The Vine’s staggering six-nights-a-week live music club, with their headline slot here on Thursday, local band The Detonators return as support to the more fêted Subways. Though both bands draw on garage punk as their major influence, the former borrow more from the classic English sound of The Buzzcocks than the grungey Detroit sound of the latter, and they’re all the better for it. Though they group get off to a slow start, they quickly settle into to a pattern which, though far from original, offers several great moments, of which 'Cheap and Nasty' and the controversially-titled 'I Fell in Love with a Suicide Bomber', with their big, dumb, melodic choruses, are the highlights. The international-terrorism-as-metaphor-for-relationships motif recurs several times, but while it’s probably safe to say that Daily Mail readers won’t be digging The Detonators any time soon, politically correct listeners should not be put off, because this is very accessible music.

Sandwiched between two helpings of good-time rock’n’roll is the notably darker sound of fellow Leeds band The Holy Terror. Considerably more (whisper it) gothic in inclination than the other groups, they nevertheless possess a huge amount of energy which fits in well on tonight’s bill. Though they work from a limited palette, and the set is a bit repetitive after a while, their percussive – and concussive – songs deserve to be heard.

All of which makes Welwyn Garden City’s The Subways a little bit disappointing. Whatever their selection to play on the main stage at Glastonbury this year – as part of Michael Eavis’s new bands competition – was based on, it certainly wasn’t originality. With a garage sound rooted firmly in the Motorcity, and with a girl/boy duo trading vocals at the front, at times it’s like watching a Von Bondies tribute act. And let’s face it, The Von Bondies are pretty much a tribute act themselves. The Subways are never more than competent, and though their ascendant stardom seems inevitable, it’s painfully misplaced.