Lordy, how many hand-weaved headbands can one take? If MGMT’s free love psych-pop wasn’t enough to melt our brains with its melodic brilliance, it looks like Amazing Baby are here to make sure our grey matter can well and truly ooze out of our noses. If their show last night at Swn was anything to go by, anyway.

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We had them headlining the NME night at the Barfly after Broken Records.

And what a slimy psych-stew they cooked up – all with impeccable pop hooks, of course, with singer Will careering around the stage like the guy from Yeasayer having an itching fit.

It was their first non-London UK show, and will probably prove to be one of those boast-you-were-there moments. Not to be smug, or anything.

I camped out at Barfly for most of the second night of Swn, which had turned the Welsh capital into an indie empire for its duration (it’s still going on tonight, actually, but some swine didn’t think to organise trains later than about 9pm, so I’m missing Future Of The Left. Someone will pay for this).

It was great to be back in the venue where I first saw Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Coral, The Killers and all that mob that first made me realise I needed to quickly shift my attention from my degree to making sure I could get closer to this stuff.

It was also a bit moving to see this on the ceiling:

It’s a poster of an old gig by Matthew Jay – sadly no longer with us – signed with a message to the venue. It’s a bit odd seeing a hand-written sentence from someone who’s no longer alive. He would have been good at Swn.

But to sum up: Amazing Baby’s head-fry, The Chapman Family’s transformation from precision-rock button-ups to guitar-splitting punk rockers in the space of a half-hour set, Gallops’ wall-shudder space rock and a few vats of impeccable Brains bitter have culminated into one of the best weekends of the year.

Swn – another year, another success, another step towards becoming an essential fixture in the British music fan’s diary, already so much more than a local garnering of indie talent. Until next year, then. Oh, and enjoy Future Of The Left…