Festive spirit and Christmas cheer is in the air tonight as presents are handed out on arrival and tinsel glistens in the stage lights. A depleted line up tonight as winter sickness overcomes Northampton’s Line & A Dot, leaving local hardcore/punk quartet The Tupolev Ghost and Portsmouth’s Chillerton to warm up the crowd on this foggy December evening.

Firstly then, The Tupolev Ghost bring their Fugazi-style punk tunes and get the audiences’ heads nodding and feet tapping, playing songs such as Ambulances and First Prize and receiving a good response. Shortly after, the slightly tipsy Chillerton follow with their more melodic punk stylings. Playing to a slightly inflated crowd, they provide good tunes and comedy moments before ending their set a little suddenly. Before the instruments are downed and the trio disappear however, songs Hidden and The Way She Types ensure the audience are raring to go when the headliners take to the stage.

Tellison are a four piece ‘fight-pop’ band formed in Kingston and have released one of the year’s finest records in Contact! Contact! Expectations are high tonight as the record and reports of other live shows build the group up as an exciting and euphoric live band who make the world that little bit brighter. Playing tracks from the aforementioned debut record, Tellison have the majority of the people in the packed room singing along to songs such as Gallery, Disaster! Disaster! and New York New York New York before dropping the tempo a little with Fire and new, and equally as stunning, song Wasp’s Nest. Ending the fast paced and frenetic set with Reader, there’s handclaps a plenty and sweat dripping not only off the band but the fans as well. As the rapturous applause at the end suggests, this is a fantastic way to head into the festive season and Tellison are, well, just perfect.

Writer: Rhian Daly

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