GIVE IT A NAME @ EARLS COURT 10/05/08

I bought a ticket off a tout for this outside the venue. I'm only really a fan of a few of the bands playing and I'm certainly not an advocate for any show being held at Earls Court but, knowing that the event was so remarkably undersold that prices outside would be far cheaper than face value, I figured that I had nothing to lose. However, when I left, eight hours later and before the event finished, I was at a point where I had finally decided to cut those losses that I had previously thought impossible. The sound inside the venue was never going to be great what with it being in a room the size of an airport terminal and with it being a 'festival' the sound checks were never going to be thorough, but I didn't foresee the entire day sounding as though I were listening to the bands through a seashell. Add to that the £3.70 price tag on the only lager available (Carlsberg at 3.8%) I was never likely to get drunk enough to excuse the sound and awful atmopshere of a barely two-thirds filled arena. None of this was the bands' faults though and so I begrudgingly forgave them and write this review with all of the above put to the side.

First up were BROADWAY CALLS. I walked in a song into their set and I had heard good things about them. The crowd was extremely sparse at this point but the band seemed pretty entertaining and I think that I'd have enjoyed their set a whole lot more in a smaller venue. Probably a lot of fun and I wish that they were on the Give It A Name Introduces tour so that I might get the chance to see them again on a slightly more intimate occasion.

MEG & DIA do very little for me. They sound competent but have nothing on offer to make me want to stand up and take note. Instead I kept seated and the same could apply for MAYDAY PARADE. A slightly more interesting proposition, and one that I was looking forward to checking out, but they did little to impress me. As the day went on though I realised that few would have that potential.

CHIODOS, despite being a band that I am never going to be a fan of, managed to hold my attention and, through their heavy riffs, and at one point a whole wave of base, they stood out from the crowd. MC LARS, although very different, could be lumped into the same principle. A 'rapper', with Failsafe as a backing band, was always going to stand out despite the vast majority of his fan base being pop-punk kids. I'm not a big fan but, from what I saw of him, he was probably one of the better performers of the day.

The same cannot be said of COBRA STARSHIP. I was never a massive Midtown fan and so, seeing how bad Cobra Starship are, I cannot imagine how hard it is seeing Gabe waste his time in such a mediocre band, awash with neon hoodies and lacking in hooks. SET YOUR GOALS have hooks and the songs to get the crowd moving for the first time in the day, but the sound is definitely against them. It sounds as though they are playing far off in the distance and so, what would have been a very solid performance from them, leaves me a fair bit cold.

ALL TIME LOW are some way off Hit The Lights and Valencia in the 'great pop-punk bands coming through stakes' in my eyes, despite having rustled up a larger fan base than those two bands already. Today their slick, catchy pop is a welcome break and, despite being on the smaller state, the crowd seem to get into it too.

And so to the first of the two main reasons that I had made this trek to West London today, FINCH. Despite already being in possession of a ticket for their headline show in three days time, I couldn't wait after their hiatus to see how they were going to return. I was not prepared for quite how impressive they would be. The sound seemed to be slightly remedied and they managed to sound big, the vocals soaring and the guitars crisp. A seven song set and only a half an hour set was the only downside but it was the perfect appetiser for their headline show.

My second reason was ALKALINE TRIO. The band are one of my favourite in their genre, dark and with distinctive vocals, they have always stood out from the crowd for me. Tonight they seemed as though they really couldn't be bothered, which is somewhat weird as they are only in the UK for these two shows. Ending with She Took Him To The Lake was a strange end to the set and a strange end to my Give It A Name. My first experience of the event and, unless they change venues and get a line-up more akin to last years, I almost certainly will not be back.