The Manhattan Love Suicides

It's fair to say the times really are changing. Where once this whole rock and roll shenanigans was strictly an all blokes affair not too dissimilar from the tribal atmosphere of a football match, there's an all-encompassing vibe now that sees the male:female ratio become more evenly negated, if not quite equal, particularly as all three bands this evening possess drummers of the fairer sex. Not only are the group dynamics distinctly asexual, but there's also a more knowing tendency to cherry pick from the most discreet archives of what's gone before to create something new and vibrant, sights firmly set on the present.

Leeds quartet The Manhattan Love Suicides are an obvious point in question, drawing influences from first generation punk such as the Buzzcocks coupled with Creation Records sonic nihilism and the attitude fixated angle of C86 jangle pop such as The Primitives or The Rosehips. Tearing through their twenty-minute set like there's literally no tomorrow, its little wonder singer Caroline McChrystal draws on her can of Carlsberg at the end of their set like she's sucking air from a respirator.

For capital based collective Wet Paint tonight's confined settings represent a vast change from their last supporting role as guests of Bloc Party, yet one suspects the adulation their Dinosaur Jr-meets-Urusei Yatsura fuzz racket receives from the capacity crowd (approximately 100) is far greater and more appreciative than they'd have gotten from Messrs Okereke and co.'s audience times tenfold and more. Frenetic, shambolic and decidedly messy they may be, but everything about Wet Paint from the way Melinda Bronstein's drums edge forward every time the kick-pedal is activated to the raucous and seemingly created-on-the-spot riffage screams "DIY" in bold capitals.

Last but not least its the turn of New York's Crystal Stilts, a band who've perhaps unknowingly found themselves elevated to the status as one of 2009's great expectations. That the room is full of band members from many of Nottingham's finest musical ensembles of recent times both past and present tells its own story; the hype bubble is floating ominously above Crystal Stilts collective heads.

Thankfully they manage to erode any doubts almost immediately, opening numbers 'Prismatic Room' and 'The SinKing' instantly recognisable from current long player Alight Of Night, and both sending the front four rows of this tiny venue into subservient raptures. Indeed, it would have been easy for Crystal Stilts to have just continued to play it safe and churn out track after track off said album knowing full well they've got this audience stuck in the palms of their hands, but instead no less than half of tonight's set is made up of entirely brand new, unreleased compositions that shake their shoegoth blueprint into Jonathan Richman territory ('Sycamore'), Johnny Cash style yarn ('Sugar Baby') and Jim Reid/John Cale white noise abating scree (forthcoming single 'Love Is A Wave'). The fact they choose to return for an encore by way of their own take on obscure Velvet Underground number 'Temptation Inside Your Heart' all but confirms that Crystal Stilts are anything but conforming to public perception of what they might or mightn't be about; tonight's performance simply exceeded expectation on all counts, and one can be pretty damn sure that their next visit to Nottingham for May's Dot-to-Dot Festival will be one of that weekend's hottest tickets in town.

All photos by Toby Price. More pictures from this show here.