Ladyhawke

Tonight's headliner is most definitely So-Friggin'-Hot-Righ'-Now! One look at the audience suggests Pip 'Ladyhawke' Brown has - like Annie and Lykke Li before her - got the attention of both the asymmetrical-haired cool kids and the beardy/blousy broadsheet readers who know good pop when they hear it. And it's good timing: after the 'meh' reaction to CSS' Donkey, a vacant hole in the indie-electro snake pit has certainly been opened up.

Soundtracking this crowd-gazing are Fenech Soler. These well dressed young men have nailed The (80s) Sound Of Now on a smaller, more DIY scale. Stand out track 'Lies' could be Friendly Fires remixed by Van She. If New Young Pony Club or Soulwax started out in a basement flat, they probably would have sounded a bit like this. Catchy stuff.

Ladyhawke shuffles onstage; a gorgeous mess of blonde hair, oversized hoodie and Kohl black eyes. For the rest of the night, we hardly see her face under all that platinum kerfuffle. Each song gets a quiet introduction and an embarrassed thank you, and much appreciation from the bustling second room of The Cockpit.

Her self-titled debut is played in near entirety, the tight set list ditching the token slow songs. 'Magic', the bewitching album opener, lies somewhere between 'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)' and 'The Things That Dreams Are Made Of'. This antipodean gal clearly knows a thing or two about desire and yearning, making a point of the lyric "One journey for you but it’s worth it/One life here with me and it's magic". When not staring down at her guitar, she clings to the microphone like it’s her last friend.

Elsewhere, 'Back Of The Van' channels Debbie Harry; breathless but slightly bruised. Not sticking around for encores, the night ends on an upbeat high with 'Paris Is Burning' ("Give me your glass/That's your last/You're so wasted") followed by an urgent rendition of 'My Delirium'. Cue much dancing.

It's in the live environment that a lot of these sorts of acts fall apart, and while some songs pass by tonight without much of an impact, it’s Ladyhawke's understated performance that marks her out from her peers. But if she's shying away from attention then she better make the most of playing these small venues: bigger things definitely lie ahead.