Tonight’s audience are stood listlessly still for the first few songs of Smudge’s set. It’s Wednesday night, and the mostly teenage crowd have probably used every cell of energy and ability to concentrate over the droll and panic of dissertation deadlines and stuffy sixth-form lectures. However, Smudge are a contagiously positive bunch of lads, and by the middle of their set a buzz of activity finally starts to erupt amongst the sleepy auditorium. By the final song, the crowd is animated with swinging, head-banged hair and fervent pounding fists, evidently sold by the bands supremacy of sound.
Reminiscent of all the best big-hitting tunes of AFI (minus the goth) and the catchy, hook laden pop sensibilities of Fall Out Boy, Smudge are pop-punk at its resplendent best. Frontman Jack produces some impressively massive vocals (despite, he tells us, having a ‘really bad throat’) and exudes an endearingly effectuate stage presence which seems to over-excite more than a few of the girls in the audience. The rest of the band, too, are electrifying to watch. Passionate and spirited, they throw themselves about the stage masterfully – each proving their individual prowess for performance.
Opening salvo ‘Flat line’ provides infectiously snappy verses which build up into a big, epic chorus backed by some seriously epic guitars – it’s a formula Smudge adhere to throughout the set, but not to their detriment. It’s exuberant, catchy stuff and they play it bloody well. Their capacity for a heavier, hammering sound is glimpsed at in ‘Sound The Alarm’ and ‘The Thrill’ in which melodies and drums soar into feverish climaxes of enormously potent punk-drawl, transfixing the audience into an excitable stupor. The boyish pop-punk playing field is awash already numerous competitively sparkling groups very similar to what has been witnessed tonight.
However, Smudge show great potential for writing a great song and performing it with vigour and rapture – there is something a little different about these lads, which they’ve perhaps failed to completely utilise yet. But when they do, you can bet they wont be playing to sleepy, reticent audiences for much longer. [7]
Words: Amy Roberts
Pictures: Sakura