Tommy’s was beseiged by technical problems for this indie-rock evening, it was hard to tell when sound checks ended and sets began, but none of the bands visibly let this get to them, it’s just a shame that the audience couldn’t experience – especially the first act – in a better technical light.

Opening the evening was Ben Calvert and band, I saw Calvert earlier this year and what grabbed my attention and impressed me – and continued to impress me tonight – is the quality of this man’s song-writing; there is clearly a certain Northern bent to his music and similarities to artists like Billy Bragg in the juxtaposition of the up and downbeat. Calvert is a highly talented lyricist and guitarist and it was a pity that a lot of his words became muffled by the microphone and lost in the audience’s chatter, but the toe-tapping catchiness of his hooks – buoyed by drummer and bassist – hopefully stood tall over the hisses and pops.

Second act Walker are a four piece who play promising rock songs that always – unfortunately – descend into the same guitar noodling wig-outs. I wasn’t sure if they were a local band or not, they seemed to have brought a large fanbase with them, but, for some reason I felt like this was very early days for this band who have got quite a way to go before they find their feet. Each member seemed slightly at odds with the other – influence-wise – and I hope they can temper the mix a little better as there is great promise in a number of the tracks played tonight.

Closing the evening were The Low Lights who, for me, were the low light of the evening (an obvious statement to make, I know). Their tunes were rather unmemorable and lacked even the unfocused, jarring charms that Walker had when they weren’t pretending they were 70s rock legends having a jam. All technical problems had seemingly been resolved by this point, but it was a touch too late as there was nothing particularly interesting to hear and even less that has stuck in my memory. They are not a bad band, they just sound a bit too much like an Arctic Monkeys clone to the extent where you’re sat wondering how aware they are of it? With one song being about having a dance you cannot help but think of the Arctic Monkeys own ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’ and even for someone, like me, who is not an Arctic Monkeys fan The Low Lights come up short in comparison.