Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

When you really want to get your dance on, it's hard to go wrong with a bit of riotous ska. That it's the night before Glasgowbury is an unfortunate coincidence for ATL's sanity, but valiantly we shall dust off our chequerboard t-shirts and go forth and party. It's a hard life, it really is...

Beginning the party are a bunch of newcomers - Bomb City 7 making their debut. On this showing, it'll be the first of many times we come across them. It's agit-pop-ska-punk with funky bass lines, and the punk attitudes of Gang of Four and Rage Against The Machine - hip-hop, metal, rock, and funk with a political awareness. 'Mephedrone' is impassioned funk, while 'A True Love Story' is indeed "a wee dancey number for the ladies", as our topless front-man runs around like a buck eejit. Remember the name, you'll be hearing it again.

The Hostiles are in an unfortunate position here. They're a touring band which means they don't have the home-town following of the other supporting acts and they're not the headline band so they don't have their own followers either. The crowd are by no means hostile (badumm-tssssh - thank you, here all we...) but this bunch of American-Glaswegians have to work hard to win us over. There's an American punk vibe to the ska, the 'smart-dumb' aesthetic of Mudhoney thrown into the brassy speed ska mix, which is all very catchy, but it never quite succeeds in getting the room as electrified as the bands before or after.

Our last support have no such problem. Pocket Billiards have been not-so-quietly building up a head of steam and supporters around the area, and it's easy to see why. Besides fitting far too many people onstage, they've got a great line in local humour to throw into the ska-punk mix, and the music is relentless enough to wear out our dancing shoes. 'Dirty Money' is in the finest Belfast punk tradition of drink and depravity while 'Tetris' is in seemingly impossible double time, and may have resulted in the downstairs drinkers having their beverage showered with ceiling plaster. And as for 'Belfast Town', well it should be the official anthem of the city and played in workplaces and schools every morning.

Finally getting to Sonic Boom 6, they start with a slighter harder edge - ska rock rather than ska pop, with wider influences more apparent in their subtlety and variation moving them more into the territory of the urban artists like Roots Manuva or Asian Dub Foundation. With a bolshy male-female duo fronting up they're certainly demanding and in our faces. They're not afraid to have fun though, throwing in covers of the aforementioned Roots Manuva's 'Witness', The Beat's 'Mirror In The Bathroom' and The Specials' 'Ghost Town', liberally mixed in with their material, and possibly more birthday dedications than there are people in the room. Tick, tick, tick, boom indeed.

William Johnston