Audio By Carbonatix
Good punk is all about vintage. Squeeze the grape before it’s ripe and the result is tart and shallow; let it stay on the vine too long and the fruit loses its freshness and vitality. The juice coming from the Wellington four-piece Odd Man Out is at its prime — just old enough to know the frustrations of maturity, still young enough to stay optimistic and enthusiastic about getting over them. Sound of Adrenaline is Odd Man Out’s first studio full–length, revealing a band immediately in touch with all its promise and talent. These kids can blow a bubble-gum line like “I am just a boy, and I don’t know how to dance” and follow it up a few tracks later with a clever, piss-off rant called “I Don’t Care Anymore” — a song of smirking liberation that includes a “Yankee Doodle” riff and the self-deprecating complaint “People say the lyrics are too emo — emo standing for emotional.” While Regis and Kelly, who hosted OMO on their morning show last year, might want you to believe this is a bunch of teenagers in a novelty band, the depth of songwriting, self-aware wit, and serpentine vocal arrangements prove the group is far more nuanced. There’s just enough pop in this punk to make it mall- and parent-friendly, but the swishes of ska and hard rock keep it interesting to the post-high-school set. Clearly, just because they’re not old enough to drink doesn’t mean they don’t know what the good stuff tastes like.
Odd Man Out plays at 9:30 p.m. Friday, May 13, at Scene Sound and Stage, 2480 Hammondville Rd., Pompano Beach. Tickets cost $8. Call 954-582-0800.
