BarSoma            Wed Jun 10

Having returned from Japan the day before, BarSoma looks positively alien to me; Tokyo’d-out, I plonk on the couch. For all their frenetic instrument-bashing, dance-punkers Moonjog are still a baby band and have yet to start writing discernible hooks. Firmly sticking to minimalist basslines and primal drum pulse, the trio’s shouty, new wave-influenced racket climaxes with the Joy Division-aping closer Dance Disco, Korg tweakage and guitar clatter to the fore.

Playing their first-ever gig tonight, Erinn Swan-led Streamer Bendy are undeterred by their drummer’s absence and go through their hooky, ‘90s rock-inspired songs about “being pissed off by love” with ease, getting groovier with every number. Boy, Oh Boy sounds like female-fronted Franz Ferdinand and has room for a brief, splenetic acoustic solo, while Make It appropriates the hook from MGMT’s Kids before zooming into a glorious chorus – cue enthusiastic crowd response.

What’s instantly memorable about The Gallant is their lead guitarist Dave’s mothership-sized pedalboard; otherwise, the fourpiece could have called themselves My Jeans Are Causing Me Discomfort. Frontman James’s yelp draws parallels with Brandon Flowers being affected by the said constricting garment and the VHS Or Beta-meets-The Faint sonics are way too 2005, however effects-galore standouts We Say Progress, Down and Table For One are best songs The Bravery have never written. Did I mention the neon lights? Check.

DENIS SEMCHENKO

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