A decade has passed since Allister released their album ‘Last Stop Suburbia’ through Drive-Thru Records, probably the world’s most important pop-punk label at the time. Drive-Thru Records’ roster included some of the most influential second-wave pop-punk bands, causing huge crowds of kids to shake the foundations of venues with their enthusiastic bouncing. Home Grown, New Found Glory, The Movielife, Fenix TX and their fellow label-mates have become somewhat legendary in a scene that is currently regaining the strength it had in the early to mid 2000s.

Now that the majority of the Drive Thru originals have sadly called it quits or moved onto different things, it’s great to have Allister back in the UK especially to perform their second album in its entirety.

They enter the stage to some epic trumpet-led classical piece that is definitely very well known and definitely in a film, even though we can’t actually put our finger on what it is. It did, however, still have the desired effect.

Naturally, they begin with ‘Scratch’ (the first track on the album) and the crowd are already showing their appreciation by giving their lungs a bit of a workout. The crowd tonight is a strange mix of people. There are the kids that are still just as into pop-punk as they were ten years ago, and people that have grown out of it, stopped looking like they listen to pop-punk and have come to the Haunt for the nostalgia, reliving their teenage years for three quarters of an hour.

After the next three tracks, guitarist Tim Rogner admits “we put this album out ten years ago, so whilst we know how the songs go, we don’t really remember the names of them… this is number five”. Number five goes down well. As does number six, better known to everybody else as ‘The One That Got Away’, and introduced as “really fast, so if you want to jump on each other, now is a great time”. Fans jump on each other, as suggested. We even spot a bit of a brotherly waltz in the middle of the pit and some of the retired pop-punkers get frantically involved.

Like we expected, ‘Somewhere Down On Fullerton’ gets the best reaction of the night. The chorus of the single is bellowed throughout the room, and confirms that Allister’s catchy tunes are not going to be forgotten anytime soon.

Pop-punk’s not dead. Pop-punk never died. Long live pop-punk.

Haunt, Wednesday 22nd May 2013
Words by Chris Biggs
Photos by Charles Shepherd