THIS was one of those annoying times where half a dozen shows clashed with each other and you agonise over which is the best one to go to.

With Basingstoke's own Signs of Insanity gigging again, I really had to go and find out if they still had it.

I would have to wait because first up was Matt from Slough doing an acoustic set as a bit of an ice-breaker. He had a lot of fans in the house - in fact this was the most packed I have seen this venue. With plenty of audience engagement to supplement his material he really did set the scene.

Next up and all the way from London were an interesting little three-piece, fronted by the diminutive Japanese female bass-player Ayumi, Harmacy. They had Brazilian Raul on guitar and Londoner Paul on drums. They were seriously anarchic hard-core punk, crashing and thrashing around the stage, much to the delight of the crowd, more than one pint got launched into the air during the general mayhem. Very entertaining and worth checking out again some time.

And so to Signs of Insanity who have been out of commission since Halloween whilst guitarist Kim recovered some surgery. I am delighted to report that they have lost none of their power or appeal. If anything the enforced break has merely increased their hunger to get up there on stage and belt out some awesome ska-punk, with the odd punked up cover just to keep things moving. It was fantastic and I am glad that a few other Basingstoke fans made the effort to cheer them on.

Headline band was Second in Line from Newbury, Reading and London. They too have not long returned to live shows after a while on the benches, but with a psyched up crowd and a friendly crowd, they had little trouble in pumping up a storm.

Skate punk in style, it is fast and furious, exciting to watch and great fun to be a part of the party-like atmosphere. This is a line-up I would love to see brought to a Basingstoke venue - one day maybe.

-Neil Duncan, ISSUEPUNKZINE