Hundred Reasons at Concorde 2 by Guy Walsh

13 November 2009

One autumn evening in 2002 I went to one of the greatest gigs I've ever seen. A line up of Beatsteaks, A and Phoenix*TX at, of all places, Coventry Colosseum. That night I happened to be wearing my favourite red Hundred Reasons t-shirt when I wandered into the bar to get myself a drink. Rather embarrassingly, my friends pointed out that I'd been stood next to two of the band and hadn't said a thing. I glanced back, but to be brutally honest I wouldn't have recognised them if they'd stabbed me in the eye with a screwdriver.

Fast forward seven years and despite having now been to at least five or six live shows, I still feel the same. Singer Colin Doran no longer sports the instantly-recognisable afro that once grew to what appeared to be two feet above his head, singer/guitarist Paul Townsend has departed and to be brutally honest the only thing I could tell you about the rest of the band is that Larry is thin and wears glasses. However, once they started playing - there was no mistaking that this was the Hundred Reasons that I once knew and loved.

With no new material on the set list, tonight really felt like a greatest hits tour. Reeling off all the singles - Silver, Falter, The Great Test, What You Get, Kill Your Own, I'll Find You... the list goes on - and throwing in early favourites Answers, My Sympathy, What Thought Did, Hundred Reasons remind us why they were once thought of as British rock music's great hope. But please don't be mistaken - this is not a band on the way out. Though the band may have been around since 1999, their appeal clearly remains strong. Most of the mosh pit tonight appear to be teenagers, suggesting that the band are still reaching out to new listeners.

Ending with If I Could, I'm reminded why I once fell in love with this band. It's been a long time since a band has made me dance AND sing, and I sincerely hope that this isn't for the last time.

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