Seafood, Mote, Fiver @ the Point, 18th November, 2000

It's on nights like this, when you realise what will disappear if the Point had really been turned into a nightclub. The bad points about the venue, the (lack of) ventilation, the small room, just make the gigs extra special. These are the reasons, probably, why bands are so willing to play here.

First on were Fiver, from somewhere in America. Unlike recent bands from across the Atlantic, their emphasis is on the melodies, rather than simply noise. However they still sound like a punky version of Pavement. Their songs seemed to share that lo-fi feel, before hitting the big guitar chorus.

So from an American band with American influences to British bands with American influences. This was Mote's first proper gig, their only other one being at Truck, but already they are hinting at a name change. Mote, of course, used to be Dustball, and the last time they played at the Point was a year ago. Since then they have beefed up their sound, no doubt with the help of an additional guitarist and a keyboard player. So now they are much louder, rockier and even better than before. Jamie's previous squealings have lowered a few tones, and all in all they seem much more ambitious than before.

This gig was supposed to be a warm-up for Seafood, for their final gig this year, in London. Since they last played at the Point, they've headlined Truck and played at the CMJ festival in New York. They have also managed to find time to write new songs. Seafood fans will be glad to hear that the new songs are of the same quality as before, but there seem to be more songs with slow build up before the punky/moshing chorus. The moshing was some of the wildest in the Point, people didn't seem to stop at all once the band started to play.

David Seafood mentioned what a great place the Point was the last time they played here. The reputation of this place has taken a lot of work to build up, over the last few years, so luckily Bass Breweries backed down on their proposal, and the Point survives... just for a while longer at least.