The Wave Pictures

As hidden musical treasures go, The Wave Pictures are definitely vying for a place at the top of the pile. Despite releasing one of 2008's finest records in Instant Coffee Baby, not to mention wowing festival goers up and down the land with their incisively cutting melancholia, they're still relatively unknown outside of the world of limited seven-inch singles and fanzines. Indeed, this travesty couldn't be more apparent than tonight, as poor advance ticket sales for the larger Rescue Rooms mean that this show ends up being downgraded to the smaller confines of Stealth. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...

Nevertheless, those with better things to do this evening are the ones losing out, as the lack of bodies - except for the already converted - seems to spur the band on. Of course it may also be the fact that they have a new album, If You Leave It Alone, imminent, but even then, with only two new songs aired from that record, one can't accuse them of playing the sales card either.

It's quite difficult to put your finger on just where The Wave Pictures might fit in as far as genre classification goes. Maybe that is one reason why they continue to be ignored but anyone not left spellbound by the Brett-Anderson-sings-The-Violent-Femmes distress call of 'Long Island' or the seismic climax of 'Leave The Scene Behind' has a vacuous space where their heart and soul supposedly reside.

Although the focal point of the band is singer/guitarist David Tattersall, let's not underestimate the contribution of his two bandmates either. This becomes none more apparent than on 'Now You Are Pregnant', where drummer Jonny Helm comes to the front of the stage, giving an impeccable vocal performance in the process. Their cover of Townes Van Zandt's 'Kathleen' is poignantly delivered mid-set amidst a crescendo of fluttering eyelids and swaying bodies and, by the end of the set, wall-to-wall smiles resonant around the room both on-and-off stage.

One question still remains; why are this band so criminally ignored? Let's hope their next Nottingham venture at May's Dot-to-Dot Festival changes that.