Live Review: The Creases, Flowertruck, Hunch

As the small and rectangle-shaped Gallery Bar at Oxford Art Factory began to fill with music enthusiasts, Hunch began their short but sweet set. They graced the stage with teenage angst and slow-burning '90s nostalgia. Although the audience was still loitering, Hunch as a band of pastiches, seemed promising.

Flowertruck inhabited extreme energy from start to finish. The lead vocalist and bass player Charles Rushforth's presence remained mesmerising, with his radical facial movements and his tone echoing and booming, but also somewhat rough and static. The female harmonies and synth added some needed shade to the glowing pop motifs and stumpy melodies, although the lyrics seemed to be lost in the muffled buzz. Flowertruck's between-song banter was perfectly casual and aloof before their song I Wanna Be With You. They then went from "old to new" as they played a new song called Sunshower that was almost as bouncy and fascinating as their previous. By this point, the audience began to sway and inch towards the narrow front of the Gallery Bar, awaiting the headliners and their highly anticipated set.

When The Creases wandered onto the small and intimate stage the audience erupted into cheers. They opened the show with their blazing and attractive single Gradient, the title track off their most recent EP. The Creases encompassed a sort of nonchalant brilliance and boyish charm as they floated through their tunes, working the stage and feeding off the crowd's excitement. No technical difficulty or distraction seemed to faze them, as the band was spatially fitting and musically flawless. The backing vocals in conjunction with the lead vocals sounded magnetic, which fitted wonderfully with their memorable lyrics. The dynamics shifted within each tune, the drummer embracing the rhythm wholly to create this auditory pull and push. They then played their latest single and the reason for the tour, Point. The song was deliciously upbeat, a stand-out. Before it was all over, they covered Let's Dance by David Bowie, further solidifying their '80s glam vibes, Joe Agius and Jarrod Mahon's voices and eyes clearly bursting with adoration for the tune. The band's knack for performing and composing engaging tunes would become evident long after the set ended, as the bridge of Point and the chorus of previous single Static Lines stayed glued to the mind for days on end.