Sextile @ Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, 23 Jan

LA four-piece Sextile bring their garage/electro post-punk hybrid to Sneaky’s, and they do not disappoint. There are strobe lights aplenty throughout the band’s set, enhancing the moodiness of their music, as vocalist Brady Keehn bounces around the stage in Ian Curtis-esque fashion. The full effect of the lighting comes into play when they perform new single Current Affair – a serious 80s post-punk throwback, full of reverb-soaked vocals and pulsing synths that have keys player Eddie Wuebben just about head-butting his keyboard from all the moshing he’s doing.

The synths on Ripped, taken from their latest album Albeit Living, could almost be mistaken for a Donna Summer track; that is until Melissa Scaduto’s drums kick in and Keehn begins yelling, 'Death to the people who want to oppress us,' and things are not so disco anymore. Mental really is just that: a massive, loud and intense listen, with heavy and manic sounds coming at you from all directions.

The band’s set comes to a close with a seemingly never-ending encore. Kindly obliging the crowd’s initial requests for one more tune, the band – clearly reluctant to leave the stage themselves – appropriately opt to play out their set with One of These, in which Keehn repeatedly chants, 'I want more'. It seems he's tempted fate though and the crowd still do too, as chants erupt yet again and the band play what is actually their final song this time.

Sextile may be punks, but they’re crowd-pleasers too.