I’m probably slightly drunk and slightly concussed after visiting the Cathouse for “just the one” at midnight. At 3am I’m bloody, bruised and talking to some guy handing out free CDRs from his band. More than likely I’m talking nonsense about promising to review it for him.

It’s the next day and such conversations don’t count. This is rule number one of any night out involving alcohol—promises made simply do not count the next day. But I’m intrigued: is the CD any good, is it a musical masterpiece or is it laughably awful? Let’s throw the CD on, give it a listen and find out.

Opener Hey! I’m Sick starts the game with a pleasant enough bass and drum intro and takes us on a journey into pleasant call & return punk “Hey!” territory. It’s nothing outstanding but is gonna be kept in my playlist as I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s a grower.

Three Minute Warning and Contradiction are more of the same: perfectly fine local band fare. Each song seems to be rather too similar to the others; all feel too long to me, ending up sounding as though the band are bored and just plodding along to pass the time. Speeding it up or shortening it down would help. Embrace punk’s brevity and then despair when you need twice as many songs to fill a 45-minute set.

There’s nothing here leaping out at me to offer band management skills in exchange for a cut of future royalties, but I’m also not skipping the tracks or running screaming to throw the CD in the incinerator. I’m not even filing it in the coffee-cup-coaster pile. It’s a fine enough debut demo for the band. Experience and time will hopefully improve them leaps and bounds.