Future Sounds of NottinghamRescue RoomsFriday 20th February

For a city so underwhelming in the pop stakes and so often a hotbed for the slightly leftfield side of things, it's a pleasant surprise to have Rescue Rooms so full of excitable teenagers, and proof that there's more to be proud of in our fair city than Kirsty and Phil would have us believe. The assured Libertines indie of Trent FM competition winners The Turf won't be the first to break the mould, but its macho 'Leisure'-era Blur moments hint at an experimental punk bubbling under the Kooks-style polo-shirt and quiff surface, while the soulful indie-pop of The Vaarlets is a rainbow of Whitest Boy Alive/Magistrates simple-yet-effective tuneage, only let down when their more punk moments all too often lapse into the tired verse-chorus-verse formula of straightforward Undertones indie. Not that we can really complain, considering we can actually hear them; more than can be said for the muted affair that is Nina and Taylor, a combination of acoustic guitar and double bass backed with the more than proficient beatboxing of Motor Mouf. While their set's confident, it's often buried beneath an eerily underwhelming PA and the chatter of increasingly impatient local teens.

The energy they so clearly crave doesn't take long to materialise; the entrance of the now much-touted Dog is Dead ushers in a heady Hot Club de Paris-style combination of fidgety guitars and almost barbershop harmonics, rousing the afternoon's crowd and managing to overpower the intermittent feedback of the struggling sound system, and the familiar strains of 'Board Games' and 'Clockwork' prove highlights in an exciting set of jazz-indie that brings Rumble Strips and a more fiery Average White Band to mind. The afternoon's headliners Frontiers have little by the way of funk; theirs is a densely atmospheric rock that offers barely the opportunity for a dance, yet still gains the sweaty efforts of a few topless moshers. Opening with a brace of freshly written tracks, the now Radio 1 endorsed quartet rarely shift from the single gear indie that has fast become their trademark, yet the ditching of old favourites 'Familiar Faces' and 'Argument Fuelled By The Barman' has them settle into a wide-eyed collection of anthemics built around a Verve/Stone Roses template that'll likely see them return to crowds of a similar size in months to come.

A victory for Nottingham then, and a vision of the future for us. A successful scene isn't about one band making it, it's about the actions of those that surround that band, and all it takes is our collective motivation for us to rival anywhere we like. Now stop expecting Nottingham to do well without your input, because this city needs you...

Frontiers played:

• Repeat Offender
• New Eden
• If You Think You Know Me
• Frontiers
• Send the Night Away
• In Pursuit

www.myspace.com/frontiersofficial
www.myspace.com/dogisdeadband
www.myspace.com/vaarlets
www.myspace.com/theturfnotts