AKA The Fox

Saxophonists. Who'd have them? The rest of tonight's headlining band, AKA The Fox, must be wishing they didn't. The crowd are begging and screaming for an encore, but baldy saxophone man shakes his head. Crazy, tie-wearing front man tries to convince him but sax man has had enough and stomps off.

Tarnishing an otherwise quite scarily fantastic glorified local band night, any of the other three could have equally carried the mantra of headliner. And they'd probably have given the baying crowd the one more song they were longing for.

When it came to deciding the running order, Thee Comrades must have pulled the shortest straw, and as such take to the stage just 15 minutes after doors open, and thus only get to show off their infectious angular and meandering pop songs to handful of early birds. They're like a honey-coated Maximo Park, or if time travel were to allow The Beatles to make an album influenced by the Futureheads' debut; if Franz Ferdinand are entertaining the blazer-wearing indie kids in the dark of the matinee, Thee Comrades will be soundtracking the sunny outdoor barbecue party afterwards.

While grammar fans may feel the urge to throw their copies of Eats, Shoots and Leaves at The Very for having such a terribly ungrammatical name, the pretty boy guitarist and his funny-face pulling drummer sidekick soon silence their sceptics with a sound that makes them either the new Death From Above 1979 or the new White Stripes. Hmmm. Stand out track 'Dancefloor Hell' is such a sexy slice of gritty rock'n'roll genius with genuine floor-filling potential that it alone should be enough to feed and clothe them and ensure they never sleep alone for the rest of their lives.

Beautifully difficult to categorise, Drive By Argument are like some kind of ferocious dancing synthesiser-playing emo rock-with-pop-tunes crazy cartwheeling monster of a band. This isn't the chaotic rabble you might expect from a band with a similar level of hairiness to The Cooper Temple Clause – no, it's more like the result of some secret long-term project between Soulwax, Jimmy Eat World and Bright Eyes to make a selection of songs that every modern genre would fiercely want to claim as their own.

And AKA The Fox? They are what might happen if The Blood Arm put Nathaniel in a straight-jacket and stuck a saxophone in his mouth while their extravagant compere, Ben Lee, took over on vocals. Ridiculous, a little bit camp and disco-dancingly loud, they sound terrible on CD but pull it off quite incredibly live. Not as instant as the other bands on the bill, the crowd really warm to them after three or four songs, and by the end are left gagging for more.

But Mr Grumpy on the saxophone wants to go home to his bed, leaving his band looking awkward and embarrassed on stage as the house lights go up and the Liquid Room empties without an encore. Just when they had the chance to really steal the show, they end up handing it back to the three awesome bands who played before them and shuffling off with their tails between their legs. Oops.