Finch, Temple Bar Music Centre, 31^st March 2003.

My expectations were high walking into the Music Centre tonight and, within about ten seconds of coming onto the stage, Finch had blown them clean away. It's great to see a band who are so hungry and so ferocious on stage, like a mini-Deftones, they were out to prove to the Irish why they are already being listed among the bands you have to see live.

Their deceptively diminutive frontman has a voice to match Chino Moreno. He switches between heart-broken sing-song and pained, gut-wrenching growls with astonishing ease and speed. Flanked by two blood-red Finch logo flags, the band tore through their entire album, pausing only to play a more relaxed new song. 'Project mayhem' was delivered like a precision missile attack. The more straight-forward rock of 'Grey matter' and the fantastic 'Letters to you' got the crowd moving nicely, while 'Ender' almost had the place in tears.

Live, Finch's strongpoint is their use of dynamics (oh yeah, that and their fireball singer and animal drummer, who was firing off volleys of double bass-drum beats like crazy). Their sound is based loosely on the soft verse, loud, crashing chorus blueprint, which gave the heaving pit enough opportunities to catch its breath and relax. If you haven't got you hands on their "What it is to burn" album yet, then I'd advise you to go get it now. You're missing out on something big here. Just remember, they are even better live.