Into the braying cuntfest that is Buffalo then, to have a gander at the new Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers club night, and wobble in front of two tricksy instrumental bands. Anyone promising on the flyers to play Deerhunter, Feist and Life Without Buildings is clearly worth investigating, even in the realm of overpriced beer, and the mildly experimental air continues into tonight’s openers, Talons (Kites on the poster; they announce their moniker change mid gig). Talons seem an agreeable congregation of post rock cliches: chunky bassist, absurdly talented/widdly guitarist, nicely choppy drummer. The racket they make takes similarly from a decent range of sources: a little Explosions In The Sky in the riffwork, some early Battles in one song’s mathy intro. They seem to gravitate a little too much to head nodding rawk moments, but mostly, this is good noise.

And then Vessels come on, and are more like fully grown siblings, or lumbering beasts of this instrumental set. Their first song has one of those enviable post rock naked lunch moments where you’re lured into suddenly realising ‘hang on, this is actually bloody great’. More reasons to like them: lots of instrument swapping and double drumming; a member who looks a bit like Mark Speight and pulls bizarre faces; a member with funny hair. These things are important. Musically it’s a big sheen of tour-acquired professionalism, but no less satisfying for that, as songs jink from intricate-but-hefty, to noisy-and-crunchy, in fairly traditional home run patterns. Nice nice, and nicer still once they finish and Battles and Mae Shi get fed into the PA. Recommended seller, would buy again.