When last year’s Punt kicked off at Borders book shop, bands and punters alike were offered redemption from the evils of rock and roll by the shelves of bibles and religious tracts stacked behind the temporary stage. This year the powers that be have obviously gone for damage limitation, with the first two acts playing in front of assorted keep fit guides, doubtless offering advice on how to lose the beer gut that tonight’s extended trek around Oxford’s venues will add to.

As ever, the acts on at Borders are picked to ease gig-goers into proceedings gently. VARJAK - a young Scottish lady called Melissa perched behind an electric piano - offers some gentle, not-quite-folk torch singing; she keeps reminding us that her band is normally a duo who rely on electronic beats and studio effects but her solo showing tonight offers a glimpse of a serious vocal talent who manages to contrast a cold, often spiritual lyrical content with a warm and winning sense of humour, somewhere between Tori Amos and long-lost Creation and 4AD folkie, Heidi Berry.

Those casual literary browsers slouched in their upholstered armchairs not thus disturbed are eventually distracted from their gardening tips and golfing history by HIERONYMUS who find themselves contenders for most improved band on the Punt. They immediately belie their ‘folk-pop’ tag with a sleek, synthetic pop sheen and smooth-jazz gilded melodies that are fired off with just the right mix of cool precision and unassuming emotion, the bubbling keyboards offsetting the band’s solid, rhythmic guitar pop and singer Katherine’s limpid voice.

But then it’s time to ditch the Starbuck’s lattés and head down to Jongleurs for some ROCK! And ROCK! Is what we get. In large, blunt slabs, initially from recent University band competition winners MALKOVICH, who for tonight, although possibly for the rest of their career also, are going to be Smashing Pumpkins. Loud they rage, but rarely do they connect. Their few catchy ideas lack individuality and that battle of the bands title seems likely to remain the pinnacle of their achievement.

Which isn’t something you could ever say about SOUTH SEA COMPANY PROSPECTUS. Tonight, as they plough a furrow so dark and deep you can almost feel the earth’s molten core bubbling up through it, there are grown men - seasoned cynics - retrieving their jaws from the floor, while the rest of us simply stand in slightly amazed awe at the beast this band has become. Death in Vegas gives way to The Chemical Brothers, then Spiritualized and finally - and we kid you not - The Sisters of Mercy, and even the venue’s prohibitive bar prices can’t stop us raising a toast to the band of the night.

A shame that the majority of the crowd then scuttle off to other shows instead of hanging around for MINDSURFER. Across town tonight the Punt reflects the inexorable rise of metal, but Mindsurfer are a blacker shade of dark than most of the other offerings. Loud and extremely heavy, they fix you with a stare that says, “you know you ain’t gonna find better, so why bother trying?”

Punt 2002 review continued... ---->