By the time we arrived in the Kings College Student Union (famed for sweaty surroundings and cheap beer) we’d missed the first opening act, whoever they wer, but fortunately we were in time for Derry trio, Fighting With Wire, who are absolutely bloody brilliant, largely because they’ve figured out a handy trick that bands with twice their experience often take years to crack. It’s spelled C.H.O.R.U.S. Fighting With Wire are masters of the catchy chorus and a couple of minutes into each song they have the whole audience singing along, whether they’ve heard the songs or not. Added to that front man, Cahir O’Doherty, combines a powerful voice with a natural knack for banter that can’t be taught. Their new album, Bones Of The Twilight, is out imminently. I would suggest checking it out. They might just be the next big thing.

I’ve seen Twin Atlantic at KCLSU before but at the time they were opening for Say Anything and it appeared that in the audience no one but me had ever heard of them. Friday’s gig was a completely different experience. I think I might now know how one of those kids that puts their birthday party on facebook, only to have the whole county turn up, feels. It’s a strange dichotomy for every hardcore music fan… when the band that was your secret favourite band really breaks out of the home crowd/word of mouth stage (Twin Atlantic’s new album Free made it onto the top 20). There is the elation at the idea that everyone agrees with the genius you’ve uncovered as well as the joy of seeing a group of people that you’ve come to care about being successful. There is also the sadness of letting go of a level of intimacy that you can no longer have once a fan base gets to a certain size. Friday’s gig was the moment that I officially had to let go.

That said, it was an incredible gig. Apart from one of the peripheries I was squashed into, the entire floor erupted into a moshpit with a level of aggression that unsurprisingly matches that of the new album. Every song, new and old, was sung in unison by the adoring crowd and front man Sam McTrusty actually miraculously declared that he thought this particular London crowd wasn’t that awful. I suppose it was deserved since he managed to get fully upright when he did a stage dive worthy of Matt Schultz.

Twin Atlantic is still my favourite band… it just turns out now they’re everyone else’s too.  I will never forget the first time I saw them in the Water Rats Theatre (opening for the now defunct, Armor For Sleep), almost three years ago to the day. Where Ross and Barry joined the mosh pit with their guitars and Sam played parts of the set lying in the middle of the dance floor. And just in case anyone wants to remember it with me, here’s a little piece of nostalgia from me to you.