Yesterday was great. I'd just finished my teacher training course, I'd witnessed an entertaining, if goalless, match of football, I'd met up with one of my favourite bands at a send off for their guitarist who was going home for Christmas, and I'd enjoyed an explosive performance from The Rocks - the first proper gig I'd been to in six weeks (ok, so I saw Grandaddy at Brixton Academy the previous Wednesday, but that was more like a projection show than a normal gig).
Today, however is not going so well. Having spent the night on Daniel's floor, I was suffering a bit from my first night out in ages. I then spent several hours walking up and down Oxford Street trying to get my Christmas shopping done, after which I booked myself tickets to see Kill Bill at the Odeon. On arrival I discovered that, even thought their booking line had been happy to charge me for the tickets, I couldn't actually get into the cinema as they were hosting the premiere of Cold Mountain, and they can't risk having plebs like me in the same building as Nicole Kidman & Jude Law. After much grumbling at said ticket line, I decamped to Islington to search for a nice cup of tea. Having walked 15 minutes in one direction, I headed back, only to find that there had been a cafe about thirty seconds walk in the opposite direction from where I'd started. Bought a cup of tea. Scalded the inside of my mouth. Gave up & went to queue up outside the venue. Got in: "Hi, I should be on the guestlist for Six by Seven."
"Sorry mate, your name's not on the list, that'll be twelve quid."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGH!"
Still, I'm inside now, nothing more can happen to me. At least, that's what I thought.

I hadn't bargained on MARTINI HENRY RIFLES' artless guitar battering, Fall-ing somewhere between Mclusky & Pink Grease, but lacking the songs of the former and the charm of the latter; or on BELASCO, whose bombastic Jeff Buckley rip off has been done to death, and singing like Michael Stipe with a mouth full of cotton wool isn't going to do anything to change that.
Still, respite was eventually at hand in the youthful form of YOUTH MOVIE SOUNDTRACK STRATEGIES, who carried on where they'd left off at Truck Fest with a masterclass in post-rock dynamics. It's a brave band that opens their set with a mostly instrumental eight minuter, but the heavy bits rock with such intensity, and the time changes jerk about in such a gloriously disorienting manner that we are more than willing to forgive them from occasionally taking the scenic route to get to them.

And then it was time for the main event. Last time I saw SIX BY SEVEN, the band was at a crossroads. Having been reduced to a four piece and then dropped by their label it was an uncertain performance that had veered from majestic to disjointed with every passing song. Today we find them back at that same crossroads, fighting to adapt to the loss of another member, and playing material that was new to most present tonight. But instead of the nervy cautiousness of a year ago, tonight is a triumph - a band completely at ease with what they've become and calling all the shots for themselves.

We're treated to plenty of old favourites - even going back as far as 'European Me' from their 1998 debut album, and those songs sound as huge and as beautiful and as heartbreakingly wonderful as they ever did. But for once, it's the new stuff that we're here for, and it doesn't disappoint. Eschewing 'The Way I Feel Today's more radio friendly polished edges for the bloody rawness and emotion of their earlier work, the new material revels in pounding, metronomic drum beats and the walls of electric noise that cascade from Chris Olley's guitar and James Flower's keyboards like showers of sparks from an angle grinder.

Suddenly the band seem to have grown a foot taller, and Chris Olley's leaping about the stage like a teenager, thrashing his head to the glorious cacophony which he's creating, and wrenching his vocal chords raw to a

drawn out encore of 'Another Love Song'.

Maybe today's not been so bad after all.

You can find photos from tonight's gig here

For more on Six by Seven, visit their page on Joy

To discover Youth Movie Soundtrack Strategies for yourself, go to www.ymss.org.uk

For Belasco & Martini Henry Rifles, visit www.belasco.co.uk and www.design4life.net respectively