Lots of punch

THE Rollercoaster Tour has taken on some serious cargo this time round, with the powerful line up of Whipping Boy, Revelino, The Bedhangers and Big Bag Of Sticks adding momentum to Ireland's own version of Lollapalooza. The tour kicked - off at its traditional starting block on the UCD campus last Thursday and the student body was out in force, ready to be pummelled by Whipping Boy's merciless, soul searching knockout punch.

Although originally scheduled to start at 10 p.m., the gig was moved forward to accommodate that stalwart of campus life, the student disco. Thus, we missed the promising and well praised Bedhangers, whose Northern buzz pop has sent out some good vibrations of late. We also missed Big Bag Of Sticks, so there was no chance to find out whether this crusty, haired, Galway based collective were in the same kettle of fish as that other largely named tribe, The Big Geraniums.

The triple guitar mania of Revelino was enough to fill three bands' set lists and their heavenly melodies called to mind every great pop band from The Beatles to The Feelies. Revelino have toughened up considerably in recent times and their sometimes vague guitar meanderings have tightened into coiled, humbucking assaults on the higher reaches of the brain. Brendan and Ciaran Tallon and Bren Berry pulled every guitar trick in the book, building up towers of melody only to kick them over and let them topple on to a willing audience.

Along with live favourites like Don't Lead Me Down, Happiness Is Mine and What Emily Says, the band played some bright new songs, including their next single, I Know What You Want.

Whipping Boy came onstage to the strains of Frank Sinatra's Strangers In The Night, and a strange look came over Ferghal McKee as he let himself get psyched up for another cathartic explosion of sound and fury. The opening track, Fiction, was like being hit by a runaway train, as Ferghal snarled the refrain of "I can't control myself". Of course, he was in control all the way, timing his rage and pacing his passion, and even when he threw himself into a heaving moshpit he still managed to keep his hand on the mic and his eye on the prize.

Watching Whipping Boy at work in the eye of the storm, they seemed to possess even more spit and sparkle, giving a looser, more frenzied performance than at their last Tivoli appearance. Songs like Twinkle, Slipped and We Don't Need Nobody Else seemed even more real and relevant, while older songs like Favourite Sister and Buffalo were comfortably crazed. When the Whipping Boy ended on a shattering climax of feedback and distortion, there seemed little point in asking for an encore - if you hadn't been ripped asunder by then, your soul was already a ragged shell.