After leaving the Nazi police-state that is the photo pit at Manchester Apollo, I’m free to at least watch half of Poison The Well’s set without being constantly monitored by the orange-shirted Gestapo down the front (seriously, accidentally using flash in the photo pit is almost treated as a criminal offence, but using it a mere few inches away in the audience is perfectly fine?). 

Unfortunately, the venue is far from full at 7.30pm when Poison The Well take the stage and the kids who have rushed to the barrier early seem indifferent at best to the Floridians’ brand of melodic hardcore, with the rest either meandering around the bar or the merchandise stand and

 judging by the t-shirt ratio amongst the audience, the headliners are going to have a very partisan crowd behind them later on. 

With only a thirty-minute set to play with, Poison The Well mainly stick to songs from their last two albums 'The Tropic Rot' (2009) and 'Versions' (2007) and although the band have a good mix of melodic choruses and crunching hardcore riffs, it’s only really set-closer ‘Slice Paper Wrists’ (from their 1999 debut 'The Opposite of December') that evokes any kind of big response. 

This tour will however be a good source of exposure for the band and will hopefully set in motion plans for a headline run in 2010.