It’s a curious approach, releasing a live album as your first full-length offering. However, there is method to The Revs madness.

For starters, it’s a relatively inexpensive way of getting a statement of intent out there and garnering the media exposure that goes with it. It also has the virtue of instantly dispelling any assumptions that The Revs are either a brattish garage band or a bunch of preened and polished nu-metallers. As proven by this testimony to rock and roll, these boys can play and, judging by the screams from the audience, they know how to work a crowd pretty damn well. In short, The Revs rock.

You’d want to be extremely hard of heart to remain uncharmed by The Revs. True, they don’t do anything startlingly original, but they’ve got attitude and commitment. And if the song structures are essentially simple and straight forward, the important thing is that they make a powerful noise – sounding a bit like a cross between Less Than Jake and Blink 182, with the youthful exuberance of Sum 41 thrown in for good measure.

Sonic Tonic is essentially that – a no holds barred collection of decent songs played with all the vivacity a young, fresh faced power-rock trio can bring to bear.

L.W. eat your heart out.