Appearing as part of a tribute to the Buzzcocks (who the band supported back in March), they played with a ferocity that would have made Pete Shelley and the lads as proud as punch.  | | Gear (pic: Shirlaine Forrest) |
Pushed into a corner of the tiny bar, they set about showing exactly how big you can look in a small place. Not that they have much choice. In Ross Matheson, they have a giant of a frontman, a twisting dervish who looks ready to fight with the mic every time he goes near it and rags his guitar around like his most-hated possession. Their set revolved around their own post-garage punk, best embodied in the exceptional Liquor, and a couple of great covers. Appropriately, Buzzcocks’ Ever Fallen In Love punctuates the end of the set and a full-bodied Boredom makes for an encore, but it’s the twisted mashing of Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire that really catches the ear.  | | Gear (pic: Shirlaine Forrest) |
As far removed from the original as the man in black’s version of Hurt was from Trent Reznor’s, it is the sound of a band making a song their own and you just know that Cash would have respected them for it. And then, breathlessly, they were gone, leaving cries for more behind them. Gear are something special and they deserve a bigger stage next time they come up this way. In fact, they just deserve an actual stage. | 
