Warpaint, O2 Academy, Liverpool, 20 February

“Ok, this next song is a cover,” says Warpaint’s Theresa Wayman with the artifice of a giddy high school prankster. “Yeah, just to be clear, this is definitely not one of our songs,” adds Emily Kokal matter-of-factly, before demurely rolling her eyes and strumming the first lolloping chords of the Californian four-piece’s hymn to Nirvana's Polly, Undertow.

More esoteric in-joke than icy wit, the all-girl group will have to do better than spout misleading bons mots to throw off the salivating, heaving crowd sardined into Liverpool’s O2 Academy. “I love you, Stellarrr,” shouts one beer-swilling admirer of drummer Stella Mozgawa. “I love you too, dad,” she replies, tongue firmly planted in one cheek. The tone of this exchange soon dissipates, though, as it makes way for the opening percussive coda of Keep It Healthy, proving tonight’s show is more than just an uncensored forum for inappropriate banter and creepy amorous advances.

Make no mistake, however: this is a love-in for Warpaint’s syrupy melodies and slow-core revisionism. More often than not, they hit the solemn sweet spot, as on the brooding Moog swag of Biggy, or the quasi-hip-hop canter of Hi, where the tropes of production bedfellows Flood and Nigel Godrich can be found seared across their surface. Half the room already know all the words, but a good mix of older stuff, including Composure, Bees and Motown re-work Billie Holiday, does enough to placate fans of The Fool.

“Like cyanide, it's poison, she’ll eat you alive,” they sing collectively on Disco/Very, warding off potential suitors with sharp-tongued abandon atop a slinky R&B beat. This could – neigh, should – be the apex, but it isn’t, for what follows is the brilliant Elephant: a balls-deep Sonic Youth freak-out as sung by a Rachel Goswell. Everyone leaves feeling like they’ve had a sugar rush after waking from a quick nap.