Super Adventure Club @ Henry's Cellar Bar

By combining the aggression of hardcore punk with math-rock structures, Jacob Flynch (***) technically subject tonights Henry's crowd to an evening of hardcore maths. But it's much more enjoyable than school lessons, even if someone has to teach them to stop copying from Slint's answer sheet so much. The intro to 1957 is a xerox of Don, Aman, before Jacob Flynch blow away any cynicism with a tightly-controlled riot, breaking down into Black Sabbath-esque riffs, and knocking the amplifier to the floor through sheer roaring power.

We'll forgive Papier Tigre (***) the pretentious name, because they're French, and they're good too. Fresh from a tour of China, they're more melodic than their predecessors and don't rely on shifting meters to show off the talents of their drummer. It's his ever inventive rhythms and the frantic guitar-work that provides most of the appeal, as the shouted American-English vocals are hit-or-miss on the hooks. If the Chinese weren't post-hardcore fans before, they will be by now.

It's been a good night, but Super Adventure Club (****) are the cream at the top of the bill. Their set is overflowing with ideas that veer in unexpected but entirely understandable ways, like stream-of-consciousness prose. These smooth transitions between structures, signatures and styles suddenly make Jacob Flynch's earlier moves seem awfully clunky, but this is not wilfully difficult work. With soft choral lines and backing oohs-and-aahs, Super Adventure Club's special brand of awkward pop is like the Fiery Furnaces without the constipation. [Ally Brown]