Rock bands have evolved and improved over the last few years. Green Day are still a punk band at heart, but their last album "American Idiot" was a political concept album shortly to be turned into a movie, Enter Shikari incorporate electronica into their rock dynamics and Idlewild have gone from a thrashy punk band to folk rock melodic purveyors. This line of thinking hasn't broken into the subconscious of Hundred Reasons who are still just an above average rock band who occasionally win us over with their more anthemic moments. Despite having 6 Top 40 singles and being voted best new band in 2000 by Kerrang, Hundred Reasons still only have a small but loyal fan base. The 400 capacity 53 Degrees hasn't sold out but none the less it's a great atmosphere and Colin Doran still has the maddest hair in British rock. Ben Doyle, their relatively new recruit from Colin's side project The Lucky Nine on guitar makes sure that Hundred Reasons winning formular doesn't go stale.

Although musically Hundred Reasons haven't changed or altered their music much since their conception, they still remain a tight rock out fit that can deliver powerful riffs and work a crowd effortlessly. With an interesting mix of material from their latest release "Kill Your Own" and the best tracks from their debut album it's emotional music without being classed as emo and it doesn't disappoint. Colin is an enigmatic frontman with seemingly endless supply of energy. Their download track "The Mess" is anything but, it coherent, well crafted guitar crunching belter while their last single "The Perfect Gift" has hit written all over it in theory, even if in reality the top ten never materialized. "Destroy" another winner is received well with the crowd surfing keeping security busy at the barriers. One fan babbling to Colin at the front is only silence when the band carry on to everyone's relief, but after the encore and just over one hours worth of performance Hundred Reasons finish their set.

There may be very little in the way of surprises, yet Hundred Reasons are old school rock and proud of it. If the fans and the band are happy with that then it would be churlish of me to criticize them for it

Nicholas Paul Godkin