Future Of The Left; The Faversham, Leeds, Saturday, September 15

Bobbing in time with the rhythmic assault emanating from the venue’s long-suffering PA, tonight a group of balding, bearded types are going apeshit. Beads of sweat glisten on their foreheads and, inexplicably, these men – who certainly aren’t your average hipsters – are doing some kind of bizarre hopping dance.

Then Andy Falkous screams, “Why put the body where the body don’t wanna go?” two songs in and the place erupts. It’s at this point we realise that, as good as Mclusky and Jarcrew were, pooling their resources to form Future Of The Left is one of the best things to happen to alternative music in years and, like Mclusky, their speciality is short, sharp punk rock shocks loaded with both brains and brawn. Tonight’s songs deal with the political (‘Fuck The Countryside Alliance’), the ridiculous (Falkous gives a shout-out to his cat – “Colin is a pussy, a very pretty pussy” – on ‘Manchasm’) and heaps more. Then there’s the huge riffs: recent single ‘adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood’ sees the bar shake, such is the ferocity of screaming bassman Kelson Mathias’ low end, while Falkous’ guitar line on ‘The Lord Hates A Coward’ just seethes.“Violence solves everything!” declares said song’s chorus, but tonight it’s FOTL themselves who have the answers – just ask those hopping, beardie hirsutes.

Rob Webb