Luxury StrangerThe Running HorseThursday 19th February

Regardless of whether or not it is in fact their first gig - as they're at such pains to inform us - tonight's openers Goodbye Smile are enough at ease, even with the stripped-down acoustic/bongo setup they employ, to effect a pleasing, if not wholly thrilling, few tunes. At times lacking the joie de vivre of their obvious influences (perm any one from the myriad James Morrison/Paolo Nutini Topman-rock clique and you're not far wrong), their attempts at lyrical introspection boil down to a somewhat kack-handed attempt at poetry; where 'A Year Today's paeans to new-found love are well-meant, its assertions that 'not even a tumour could get you off my mind' are, sadly, more laughable than heart-warming, a feeling presumably shared by the rest of the Running Horse considering the somewhat muted response with which their self-conciously pained attempts at singalongs are met. While their cover of The Cure's 'Just Like Heaven' is perhaps a guaranteed winner considering tonight's constituent crowd, their own material - in particular frenetic closer 'Shipwreck' - is more than capable of good things, yet it's their unreliable performance that undoes their evident ability.

Filling in on the dance-indie continuum recently vacated by New Order are Shortwave Fade. Easing into their set with the criminally underappreciated 'Stay As You Are', it's left to bassist Robb Shephard's tubthumping rhythms to tear the Runner a new one, with next single 'Too Late to Tell' dragging us into an explosive widescreen pop, like Doves at a disco lock-in. On record infuriatingly tame, recent BBC-endorsed single 'Lost In A Hurricane' tonight has the the vigour of a synth-laden Morning Runner, a theme which continues throughout their set and into closer 'Now We Are Weapons', presumably one of the tracks left on The Sunshine Underground's cutting room floor for being too good. Flitting from disco-driven pop a la Charlatans to a sound reminiscent of a more aggressive REM and back again, Shortwave Fade eek out a set verging on mirrorball magnificence.

With REM in mind may we present the jury with Simon York, a glam frontman from a time before it became a dirty word and so gloriously made-up, it doesn't just make us jealous, but would likely turn Stipe himself green were it not for the moonheaded frontman's perma-paint. With an act that lends itself so much to the mascared likes of Messrs Gahan, Smith and Stipe, whether York and band Luxury Stranger could carve out their own sound is a doubt banished as they take to the stage and launch into 'Atmosphere' - a Fugazi meets My Bloody Valentine wig-out, via the nihilist anti-rock of early Manics. It's evident they're more than the sum of their influences; 'Elements' is a Spector-produced Public Image jam, while 'Paradise Untouched' and 'Dirt' both strut through an Interpol/Kasabian gangland and what 'Where You've Gone' lacks in the "fairy dust" York seeks, it more than makes up for in the windswept grandiosity of classic line-up Echo and the Bunnymen, before McCulloch went all Mark E Smith. What likely lasts 45 minutes passes in an instant and before we know it, York has removed his guitar and is off the stage; a suitably abrupt ending to a fine evening of tightly woven and impressive performances.

Luxury Stranger played:

• Atmosphere
• Elements
• Precious
• Paradise Untouched
• Grounded
• Where You've Gone
• Dirt
• Item
• Bleed
• On and On...

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www.myspace.com/shortwavefade