Haim / Saint Raymond @ O2 ABC, 12 December

Nottingham’s Saint Raymond, aka Callum Burrows, feels slightly awkward as an opener for Haim; on guitar and vocals, and backed by guitar, bass and drums, he suggests a songwriter at pains to stress the contemporaneity of his sound. In practice, this involves a kind of anthemic, afrobeat-borrowing post-punk, laced with delay-heavy guitar soloing; it’s an intricate and smoothly-meshed combination, but one that can nonetheless feel oddly formulaic.

The three Californian sisters that comprise Haim, conversely, engage unashamedly with the clichés of 70s and 80s rock and pop. Having finally released their debut LP Days Are Gone in September, Alana, Danielle and Este now find themselves selling out increasingly large venues; as they open with Falling’s mixture of snappy, Quincy Jones-esque beats and overlapping vocals, it’s easy to see why.

Highlights are the handful of instant MOR rock classics (to Falling, add The Wire, Don’t Save Me and Forever); but the trio are adept at structuring their set, lending things an increased sense of energy through the use of additional percussion, and plenty of crowd interaction. As the brevity of the show suggests, they still lack enough strong material to warrant A-list status, but you sense they’ll produce a lot more in time. [Sam Wiseman]