Stage: Reading, Carling stage
Time: Saturday, 1.30pm
Dress code: Inoffensive pop-punk gear for the band: budding beer bellies peeking over skinny black jeans; grey T-shirts with farmer's tans showing. For the crowd: beer and whatever other unidentified liquids were being tossed up in the air over everyone.
In summary: Unsigned Welsh heroes Kids in Glass Houses rocked a tent chock-full of teens who cared little about such anachronisms as a signature on a major or even minor label contract. Sing-shouter Aled Phillips conducted the masses writhing and moshing to their pleasantly derivative power-pop with commands such as "Every single person move up and down!" and "Let's all dance and lose our shit!" While this audience interaction was welcome, occasionally it seemed like little more than an emo-aerobics class.
Great show, if you were 15 and wanted to rebel against your changing, awkward body by slamming it against other similar bodies in a sweaty tent. For those waxing nostalgic, however, after the set the tent DJ popped on LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver, the lyrics of which go: "Sound of silver, talk to me, makes you want to feel like a teenager, until you remember the feelings of a real, live, emotional teenager. Then you think again." Touché.
Highlight: The infectious, rock-out set-closer Me Me Me, which brought Aled onto the tent floor with his fans. Great fun watching scrawny, shirtless crowd-surfing teen after scrawny, shirtless crowd-surfing teen get hauled out of the crowd by the beefy security.
Talking point: Aled introduced tune Raise Hell by saying, "This is a song that's been out on MySpace for about 500 years." That's how far ahead of you teenagers are: they're already in the year 2507. Discuss.
Better than: Funeral for a Friend.
Worse than: Friends at your funeral.
What they'll be up to this time next year: With a UK tour in the autumn and a record deal purportedly in the works, these Zane Lowe-touted boys could become the next Fall Out Boy. That, or we'll never hear from them again.
Mark out of 10: 7
