Spring must be here as the current crop of 'next big things' are reaching the end of what they hope will be their last trawl round the nation's toilets. For tonight's support act The Crescent the road is just beginning though. The Scouse four-piece look like they've got a collective age of 50 and possess the stage presence of four rabbits trapped in headlights.
Their music wears its influences proudly, with nods to hometown heroes The La's and Cast, stretching further back to The Jam and the early Who, with lots of chiming guitar and harmony choruses. The vocalist seems incapable of not sounding like John Power and each song dribbles out as if they haven't worked out how to end them yet. Even more unfortunately, their derivative sound leaves even the younger members of the audience with an acute sense of deja vu. The Crescent need a few more trips round the block yet.
So do Haven, judging by their sloppy and underwhelming entrance. Vocalist Gary Briggs looks like he's consumed one too many pre-show beverages, leaving him lurching around the stage. Luckily, his golden voice is still functioning as he hunches over the microphone, lank dark hair framing his manic eyes.
To his right, guitarist Nat Watson pulls no faces and pulls no punches as he effortlessly scatters solos around the band's songs of lost and wounded love. Haven possess four great songs - 'Til The End', 'Out Of Reach', 'Say Something' and 'Beautiful Thing' - and a handful that just fall short. Tonight, all of them are immaculately and beautifully rendered.
Their performance is a short, sharp rebuff to those, myself included, who thought they overcooked their debut album 'Between The Senses'. This is possibly due to the fact that the songs are delivered with minimum economy and maximum emotional impact, with none of the tedious introspection that blighted the last half of the album.
While Haven may not yet be the fully-formed article, the signs are that they're on their way at last to fulfilling the promise of their singles. So it's farewell toilets, and onto a summer that will doubtless see them win more admirers at the festivals. After that, the only people holding Haven back will be themselves.
