Hockey @ Captain's Rest, 26 Feb

As the most straight-laced band tonight, Bear Hands (****) could easily have been overshadowed by their more hyped, more flamboyant touring partners. But in retrospect their no-nonsense guitar rock is a pre-emptive breath of fresh air, marrying Promise Ring-style riffs to huge pop choruses and eclipsing the bill’s rotating headliners.

With their cuddly indie-disco the main draw for many tonight, Passion Pit (***) seem destined for huge success if Joe Public learn to stomach Michael Angelakos’s voice - it’s the musical equivalent of the “broken watch is correct twice a day” aphorism, hoisted into a falsetto and wobbled in the general direction of a tune with which it only occasionally makes contact. But it does add another idiosyncratic layer to a set that at times resembles Animal Collective, Squarepusher and Scissor Sisters (occasionally all at once), and is consequently far from dull.

On paper Hockey (***) promise Beck and the Family Stone, but largely deliver the Chili Peppers auditioning for Flashdance, or perhaps Cage the Elephant with a higher BPM. Luckily, they have tonight’s highlight in Song Away, a goofy sibling of Vampire Weekend’s Paul Simon-isms and a ludicrously catchy anthem-in-waiting that’s enough to wash away the frat-rock funk elsewhere in their set. Bonus marks too for not sulking when both microphones break, singer Ben Grubin instead converting his energy into a flailing mime almost as forceful as his coarse rock wail. Best get used to all three of tonight’s acts - chances are you’ll be hearing a lot more from them.