It turned out that last minute line-up changes scuppered what looked to be a good gig, and the lack of audience made for a somewhat subdued night. In fact the turnout wasn’t just disappointing, it was downright pitiful – the number of paying customers barely reached double figures, and the audience was largely made up of the bands themselves (kudos for staying and supporting the others) and a small coterie of Oxford regulars. Changes aside, this was still a pretty good line-up, which made the numbers all the more disappointing.

Evo Sylvian, a Dead Jerichos side-project, kicked things off with a set of songs ripped straight out of the heart of the 80s. That statement alone will divide opinion into those that either love or hate that particular period of musical history. Sylvian’s take on it is firmly at the electronic end of things – think early Depeche Mode, Marc Almond, basically anyone off the Ministry of Sound Electronic Anthems compilation – although it’s brought somewhat up to date with a smattering of Nine Inch Nails-esque chattering percussion and occasional hard dance beats. It’s technically fairly accomplished and an accurate pastiche in many respects, but lacks any really hook-laden songs and feels more like a vanity project than the real deal. Another thing working against Evo is that the gig is otherwise very much a punk/metal night, and his appearance on the bill is somewhat incongruous. After three surprisingly long songs, just when I thought things were starting to drag a bit, it’s all over and with neither a fanfare nor a flourish Evo simply stops, says goodnight and walks off.

I’d heard good things on the grapevine about The Cellar Family, but hadn’t yet caught them live. I’ll come straight out with it – they’re the first band to truly blow me away in several years. With a Dead Kennedys t-shirt-wearing bassist and a nattily dressed, somewhat suave-looking singer (who looks remarkably like MusicInOxford.co.uk’s own ‘Slasher’ Mackinnon, but 20 years younger), you just know things are going to be a bit different. They have a strange approach which appears both utterly chaotic yet tightly controlled, evoking Fugazi, Baby Teeth-era Therapy?, At The Drive In, McClusky. Deeply atonal and with a wicked sense of sexually perverse, black humour and yet capable of dropping a fat groove when needed, it’s all teeth and fury with an evil twinkle in its eye. Despite being one of the last-minute stand-ins they’re the only band to pull everyone to the front of the room, and they certainly made converts out of those of us who hadn’t seen them before. I immediately bought every CD they had on sale.

Caravan of Whores were basically fucked after The Cellar Family. I can’t say a bad word about them, because they’re a good band, have a neat line in more-doomier-than-Metallica riffs and bludgeoning, epic songs. But following on from The Cellar Family’s self-abusing onslaught they felt dated and cumbersome, like Oxford’s answer to Anvil. That’s a shame, because they’re better than that, they just fell foul of some unfortunate scheduling and came off the worse for it. A few things stood out, though – they have a fiendishly technical edge to some of their songs which elevates them above mere sludge-metallers. Their drummer also seems to have improved in leaps and bounds, getting properly stuck in and driving the band now compared to the last time I saw them. A good solid set – it’s just a shame the bar was set so high for them.

I’ve written about 13Gauge in detail before, so I won’t go over old ground here other than to say that tonight they maintained the high standards they set themselves. I was disappointed that only half of their guitar amp monolith made it to the stage, but the brutally downtuned guitars probably benefit from the crisper sound of a (slightly) smaller stack. Still, to their great credit they got stuck in to the set as if there was still a solid roomful of people, rather than the rapidly dwindling numbers, pulling the hardy few back to the front and laying about them with scattergun beats and churning guitars. Frontman Joe tried to liven things up by creating his own mosh pit with a few people at the front, and any gig where I’m punched repeatedly in the chest by a half-naked screaming frontman is a good night out in my book. They have an EP coming out at the end of May, and the launch night should be a beast of a gig. I for one will be there.