Crocodiles @ Broadcast, 14 June

A subdued Sunday night at Broadcast sees only a fistful of people catch opening band Vladimir’s set, which is a shame as the black-clad four piece do an admirable job of playing dark, moody prog rock to an empty basement. Hatcham Social are next up and don’t fare quite so well, with sound and volume issues doing little to help a performance that, whilst held together by a strong rhythm section, lacks a feeling of overall cohesion.

If headline act Crocodiles had a by-line for the evening’s performance, it should be “The Importance of Sound Engineering”. The San Francisco duo, who have doubled in size tonight with the addition of their Hatcham Social buddies on bass and drums, are plagued with sound issues from the get-go. The opener is a murky mess that leaves Brandon Welchez’s vocals indistinguishable, and whilst the sound guy manages to remedy this for the second song, the bass is all over the place, thundering across the top of the group. By the time the band tackle song number three in which all backing vocals have mysteriously faded into obscurity, eyebrows are being raised and Crocodiles are off to a shuddering start.

Things do fall magically, momentarily into place with Crybaby Demon. The track from forthcoming album Boys illustrates all the things that the group can do so well – up-tempo noise pop, bouncy momentum, melodies that stick. It excites the crowd and is a sigh of relief in what has been a problematic set. Unfortunately, after the peak of Crybaby Demon things again descend into cacophony, and we’re left to merely wonder what Crocodiles might have been.