The Tivoli   Fri May 12

There is a certain type of girl in this city who, despite the general heat and humidity, takes an indescribable pleasure in collecting and ultimately wearing brightly coloured stockings. This is their night. Mine are electric blue. I Heart Hiroshima are impossibly hip, tight-jeaned, Velvet Underground-channelling minimalist popsters. After some tangles with public transport I’m only just in time for their last song, which is sufficiently art school: eschewing the drumkit altogether for just tambourine.

The Panda Band are charmingly odd, from their Grace Kelly-adorned drumkit to the balloon tied to keyboard player Steve’s hair. Guitarist Chris Callan doesn’t let a splinted arm stop him from awkwardly playing slide guitar, joining his brother on keys and generally get in the way of the drummer (who’s not wearing a dress, it’s a kaftan). They make dedications to their tourmates’ parents and ramshackle their way through faves like Then You Appear and Sleepy Little Deathtoll Town. Their sound is somewhere between Modest Mouse and Polyphonic Spree and I love it.

But tonight is The Grates’ party and they take their job of entertaining very seriously…NOT! Every song is a highlight – from the frenetic wail of Message to Patience actually playing an instrument (melodica, if you must know) for I Am Siam. She’s at once schoolyard-backyard-familiar and yet obviously capable of total world-domination. There are balloons everywhere (“we stole this arch from a car yard”), shout-outs to puppies and short people, and there is dancing. Oh yes, there is dancing. Hair-shaking, nose-scrunching, jitter-bugging trouble-shrugging I-know-I-just-met-you-but-let’s-be-friends-forever crazy happy dancing. It rains confetti for 19 20 20 before the inevitable encore – I Won’t Survive and Inside Outside. Some motherfuckers think they’re born to dance. Some, like Patience, just know. A contender for gig of the year.

CLARE FLETCHER

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