By the time Matadors took the stage, the Discovery Museum's Great Hall had filled up. A confident quartet of 6th form students from Heaton, they grabbed the audience from the get-go with their storming opener Glass House. The chorus not only had me singing along in seconds, but there were some nicely jagged guitar arrangements to keep the surprises coming.

Their main songwriting axis lies centre stage between drummer Joss Elder and frontman Alex Blamire, balanced by Joe Sowter and Liam Clarke on either side. Four focussed, ambitious young men who give the strong impression of having their eye on the proverbial ball. Even without obvious clues such as matching clothes or haircuts, they somehow even looked more like a band than the previous three acts, and Bob Fischer eloquently praised the tough edge to their sound.

Having grown up as a teenager in the sixties, what struck me overwhelmingly about both Matadors and Toyger was the astonishing quality of musicianship among today's young players. Grumpy Old Men often hark back to the far-off days when bands could really play their instruments, but thinking back to the standard of school groups I used to play with back in that supposed golden age, they couldn't be further from the truth.

The Discovery Museum was presenting seven new bands for free that afternoon, but you could pay a lot of money at a top venue without seeing a better band than Vinyl Jacket. We'd just watched four groups with great potential, but here - suddenly - was the finished article: joyful, life-affirming music by musicians with an absolute command of their instruments and the stage. Their whole set sparkled with loving attention to detail - from drummer David Pullen throwing in unexpected backing vocals amid a barrage of cross-rhythms, to the astonishing Sam Quilliam hammering out virtuoso handpercussion with ferocious energy behind his keyboards. It was only at the end that frontman Ben Dancer (whose brother Jack is on bass) publicly thanked their guitarist for learning the set in two days flat. It seems regular member Andy Roberts had suffered an embarrassing hand injury and Grandfather Birds guitarist Stuart Walkinshaw had stepped in to save the day.

The world may not have heard of them yet but, take it from me, Vinyl Jacket are a band at the very top of their game. One memorable radio record is all it needs and they'll be all over the 6 Music playlist like a rash.



Finally we three panellists were officially thanked and dismissed. The stage was then set, quite literally, for longer sets by the two headline bands - both already well established within the region's flourishing indie scene.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Chased By Wolves. The demos we'd heard on MySpace were melodic and memorable: acoustic sketches featuring the twin vocals of Richard Smith and Emma Williams, tinged with a sepia hint of Americana. The word "folk" had been bandied carelessly around in their online reviews, and sure enough second guitarist Tom Fletcher was busy strapping on an acoustic.

And yet... the band themselves looked more like a renegade motorcycle gang than any kind of folk group: all tattooes, black vests and lumberjack shirts. And the music they made was a million miles removed from the usual selfindulgent slop you get when singer-songwriters recruit a backing group.With crunching guitars teetering on the brink of feedback and the sledgehammer rhythm section of Lewis Brett on drums and Jim Brown on five string bass, this was authentic brooding Americana from Newcastle - Byker gothic, if you like.

The songs sound very much more at home in this setting and the big shame is that you can only hear so called "teasers" of their latest recordings online. Why some bands still follow the idiotic practice of making sure nobody hears their best songs (in the hope of forcing us to buy them) is beyond me.

And so to Polarsets: three gifted and charismatic individuals whose grasp of marketing is second to none. Their knack for irrestistble hooks and killer grooves has already translated to two outstanding singles, and I wondered how such carefully produced music could be presented live by just a trio. The band themselves have obviously given plenty of thought to the same question. Rob Howe and Mickey Smith set up their matching white guitars, synths and laptops on either side of the kit - giving their stage set the clear and uncluttered look of a TV studio.

Everything about Polarsets, it seems, is planned to perfection - yet somehow last Saturday it all seemed just too planned, too perfect. Rob's guitar and vocals, Mickey's bass and James Rudd's exhuberant drumming were faultltess, but also subtly synched up with backing tracks to provide the extra textures. So although their set was consumately professional, it was also strangely unmoving. I longed for them to cut loose and rock out with some of the passion that had inspired these songs in the first place.

Yet ultimately the success of every band at the Discovery Museum that afternoon will depend on the songs they write (and the records they make) in the coming years. From that point of view, Polarsets - with their ruthless focus on quality control - have already placed themselves well ahead of the game.



SoundCloud playlist: Transmission - the NEw wave by Generator



All photos by Jazzy Lemon



Links

• Polarsets
• Chased by Wolves
• Vinyl Jacket
• Matadors
• Toyger
• Ajimal
• Cult Image
  
  
• More Generator events in the North East
  
  

Read more from Tom Robinson on his BBC 6 Music blog, or at FreshontheNet.co.uk