Port O'Brien 1, Arsenal 0

Music or football?

It's a question I occasionally have to grapple with – and am expecting to more this year than most, with the World Cup coming up in June. The most recent conundrum occurred on Tuesday night just gone. With Barcelona and Arsenal looking to reprise their amazing Champions' League game from the week before, where they pretty much turned football into an art form, I found myself double booked with Port O'Brien at the Borderline.

Now for all sorts of reasons it hadn't been a good day – the normal sort of post-Easter blues, having drunk and eaten too much over the holiday – and with a headache as well I was beginning to think I'd made the wrong choice. This was made worse by a quick glance at the phone on my way out to see it was already 1-1 in the football with just half an hour gone – and that two of my trains had been cancelled. Thankfully I rolled up at the Borderline – or down the stairs – just as the band were coming on.

And there it all changed. Seems Port O'Brien had experienced a day far worse than mine, as half their band were still back in Oakland, having decided not to tour for some reason. They had two freshers out on the stage, their guitars and equipment were playing up, and the odds, even with a sell-out crowd, were stacking up against them.
They reckoned without charismatic front man Van Pierszalowski, who showed us just how much he believes in his own music and lyrics. Giving him an ideal balance were the softly spoken trio around him – and it soon became clear all they wanted to do was play music and sing their songs. It wasn't long before the crowd were smiling, laughing at his jokes – but also appreciating the raw emotion he was putting into the darker songs from last year's 'Threadbare' album.

Capping it off was one of those classic audience participation moments, as we were invited to holler at the tops of our voices to one of the band's best songs, I Woke Up Today. It was an exhilarating experience, and for the first time in the evening I felt sure in the knowledge I'd made the right choice, a choice borne out by Arsenal's 4-1 defeat. Proof, perhaps, that music has the power to reach places even football can't get to!