Despite pug-faced Morrisey look-alike frontman Sam Endicott's unfortunate stage presence and clumsiness The Bravery surprised me by not being a total wash-out waste of time. They have a catalogue of numbers that sound almost identical but all are sung with relative aplomb. Their three stand out tracks are pretty much shouted out by the audience and in spite of lead guitarist Michael Zakarin's startling physical and stage resemblance to Nigel Tuffnell from Spinal Tap the band managed to build up enough steam for me to bob up and down a few times and stop thinking about the bar for about 3 minutes. Further entertainment was to be found watching Endicott's terrible Bono impressions, listening to him carp on about some girl he can hear shagging through his wall, 

and watch him drop the mike three times whilst gurning. I say this as a very long winded pre-amble to what comes next. The Bravery, out of their minds, wearing bad suits and looking like a bunch of overgrown square-headed school misfits, playing the same song again and again, and having terrible scary egos, still played Dallas on Friday the 23rd of September 2005. Which is more than can be said for wind-phobic Maximo Park who have cancelled their slot because they're scared of wind. A little wind that isn't even a hurricane anymore its a tropical storm. A little wind that isn't stopping my wife going to work, isn't stopping me from driving about, and isn't even going to hit until 24 hours later. Maximo Park shame on you. Even People on Planes, welsh trunge-rockers, managed to 

get their slot and - shock! - produce a relatively good show. I mean the music was gash but the show was entertaining enough. Maximo Park need to come back to Dallas with written apologies, signed doctors notes, a small presentation entitled 'why we were wrong to cancel', and play personal gigs for each person who turned up to see them . All 4 of them. Now whenever i hear Maximo Park I have to wear my disgruntled face. It's not a pretty face. Which the members of the band must be able to identify with.