Live review: Young Bands Night, The Queens Hall, Narberth, May 6th

The promoters of this successful night had produced lovingly-crafted flyers, baked and tea-stained to acquire the patina of age (they will probably turn up on eBay before long), to flag up this treasure trove of a gig.

By 8pm the hall was buzzing, by 9pm they were queuing for entry and by 10pm the walls were dripping. Although loud and guitar-based, we had four very different bands whose nuances and sub-genres cascaded from the stage like pieces of eight.

Fresh and vital, the new buzz band, Big Apple Credits, exuded confidence beyond their years as they created their slick blues-rock racket.

They even came prepared with a souvenir set list for one lucky fan. And their amazing frontman Jonny was sufficiently image-conscious to wear a bespoke BAC jacket and fedora.

In appearance he was a young Van Morrison but with a tousled, off-hand charm, his voice - a blues rasp in waiting. Genie out of the bottle? Maybe.

Nikolai are one of our very best bands. Their songs are charged with a melancholic energy as they play their melodic minor key grit-rock, which really should be for miserabilists.

But Nikolai's gift is that they play it so joyfully that you feel uplifted, bending and wrenching out, what are essentially pop songs, with snarl.

In an ideal world they would be up there with Editors; in the meantime we are lucky to have them here.

For two weeks in a row the Queens Hall has reverberated to the sounds of the luscious Love Rocket.

On fire last week, when they saw off the marauding visiting band with ease, these rock riffians continued to blaze their propulsive trail, in fact they were so hot we were melting. And the only place to be?

Close enough to catch the sparks as they fell from frontman James' guitar.

It is less than a year since Johnny Action Finger won Cardigan's Battle Of The Bands and in that short time they have made the meteoric rise to headlining and filling to capacity the QH.

And they had the audacity to follow Nikolai and Love Rocket, but then JAF are the best ska punk band in the area.

Their wonderfully playful set took in reggae and funk as well as the reliably prickly outbursts of their infectious and catchy crowd-pleasers. Sadly there isn't an end-of-year Lipstick Award for flyers, but tonight could well be in the running for best gig of the year.