“YOU! SUCK! BIG! COCK! DON’T! TOUCH ME! I AM! DISGUSTING!” It would be way too easy just to print a load of Comanechi lyrics, maybe with some mention of crazy Japanese women, lack of English, or whatever, The weird thing is how perfectly something like “YOU FUCKING RETARD! I AM YOUR LOVELY SUNSHINE!” fits with Comanechi’s clattering, full fat rock. Compared with yesterday’s hot shit Wavves, this is how guitar/drums duos should be: abrasive, funny, psychotically focussed, stylish destruction. Akiko and Simon go for it, shall we say.

But why is this looking like gig of the year already? Ponytail are confusing, ecstatic, inspiring, bizarre. How is it possible to make music so amazing with a bit of stop-start guitar and a singer who basically goes “Woooooo yip!” all the way through? No idea, but it’s fun trying to bop to. Subsequent listens to their great ‘Ice Cream Spiritual’ album reveal actual tunes (albeit sprawling neon flashlight tunes), but tonight is like some ultimate dance party, a mad wash of fireworks grooves, primed and loud and mutating every thirty seconds. You know that scene in Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure when Joan Of Arc goes nuts for aerobics? Molly Siegel is like a weird shamanistic version of that: eyes rolled white, hopping and beaming, cooing and yapping. It’s trebly, psychedelic guitars, upped notches by the drumming, led by a human theremin, and it is amazing. Come ‘Sky Drool’ (chorus: “Aiieee-ya”) it’s delirium from band to (most of) audience. Limbs flail. It might not get better than this all year, but that’s not exactly a problem at the moment.

(Photos by Rob Sell and John Rostron)