Album Review: Deaf Havana

Deaf Havana’s early single Friends Like These ends with the repeated line “Nothing gets worse than growing old”. This show made me realise they’re not wrong (maybe grammatically, but, you know…). Surrounded by teenagers having the time of their young lives, I came to the startling realisation that I am no longer young. There were people jumping up and down, there were people singing along to every word, there were young couples spooning like their lives depended on it. Then there was me, stood at the back, tapping my foot along nonchalantly, and drinking a pint of cheap lager like my life depended on it. Deaf Havana themselves were pretty good. They played their angsty brand of trying-to-be-heavy pop punk (now you may understand the demographic of the gig better…) very well. The older hits, particularly Leeches and I’m a Bore, mostly had me bobbing my head and smiling, and a cover of Friday, I’m in Love (by The Cure) had me singing along with the best of them (in hindsight, this probably made me look older than anything else). The tracks off the new album were generally fairly uninspiring. There seemed to be a prevalence of the slower, more cringeworthy type of pop punk which left me, well, cringing, but the mass sing-alongs made it seem like I was alone on that. I do have a few criticisms of the band that aren’t founded mostly in bitterness. Firstly, I don’t understand why there are 7 of them live. It just sounds cluttered. Secondly, they should play their breakthrough hit Friends Like These, or at least one track from their more hardcore oriented beginnings. Thirdly, a long speech about how you never thought you’d make it and you love everybody there for supporting you is clichéd and just painful to listen to (OK, maybe I’m drifting back to bitterness now). To be honest, there wasn’t that much wrong with Deaf Havana. I am the problem. Everyone seemed really excited as they left the building, so it must have been top notch. However, in future, I should just leave the kids to it. I did have the last laugh though, as (probably) the only person who brought a book, I at least absolutely bossed the tube ride home.