Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin @ The Captain's Rest, 14 Sep

Tonight, We Are Trapped in Kansas (**) channel the spirit of the Mars Volta away from the excesses of jazz obscurantism and towards the relative safety of post-rock. Some impressive fret-board virtuosity early on is marred by a switch to stripped-back singer-songwriter shoe-gazing mid-set, which completely kills their momentum, blowing their chances of post-gig sex right out of the water.

Jesus H. Foxx (****) however, probably get laid all the time. Despite starting the gig without their second drummer, who shows up two songs in, the Edinburgh-based band happily blast through a set that owes a fair debt to Stephen Malkmus with a sprinkling of David Byrne. Shambolic, rambunctious, and utterly charming.

Whereas Jesus H. Foxx have embraced nonchalance, Be a Familiar (**) seem to think that the way to win friends and influence people is to be, like, really bouncy. Their sound approximates 100 Broken Windows era Roddy Woomble vocals over a sanitized version of Broken Social Scene, but at times the spectre of Deacon Blue lurks ominously on the horizon.

Headliners Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (****) navigate equally treacherous waters: as a small-town American indie outfit that produces sun-drenched, harmony-soaked music, the perils of their musical direction could quite easily be manifested as saccharine-coated, mass-marketed pap, with a sound that seems tailor-made to soundtrack GAP adverts. Despite echoes of the Wilson brothers, and Elliot Smith, this four-piece succeeds in walking the high-wire between earnestness and naivety. This is a band that could be massive. Pray they won’t be, so that you can cherish them selfishly. [Ewen Millar]