Clean Cut Kid @ The Mash House, Edinburgh, 30 Mar

The clumsily stacked speakers shake from the first drone of Mike Halls’ guitar with such frustration that from the off it's apparent that The Mash House is too confined a venue for a band with such vigour as Clean Cut Kid.

The  audience are eager, clasping on to every word from Halls as he warns the set “will get friggin' emo in the middle, so I hope everyone’s ready for a rollercoaster?” This is true – as found on sophomore album Painwave, the band radiate emotion through an immense conflict of push and pull, old and new, soft against scream.  

This is more than emotion though, it's cathartic. Through Jason and Brother of Mine, Halls' gaze shifts from the crowd to somewhere more elevated, his pain voiced not just through thrashingly raw solos, but found in the harmoniously candid repetition in the latter: 'This song begins at our ending / So, I guess it’s a final goodbye'.

Akin to its promised “rollercoaster” nature, the set traverses between sorrow and rapture, effortlessly bridged by humour. Slow Progress is introduced as “a song about dickheads”, and sees Mike and Evelyn Halls' ethereal laments of 'all you ever do is slow me down' fragranced under dewy spotlights. Amidst this shore of blues and greens the band indulge in an instrumental break in the song that stands to articulate their all encompassing talent. Again catharsis comes to mind. Clean Cut Kid on stage are deftly different to their studio recordings – they are heavier and more raw, yet remain stupendous.

The set ends in retrospective climax. While their newer material was well met, the band embody a sense of rehearsed confidence as they slide into their older, and naturally more popular singles. While 2015's Pick Me Up would see a cheery end to an emotionally fluctuating set, the band are invigorated by the “fuck it” attitude of carefree enjoyment that floods the room. They refuse to bother with the performative cliché of an encore, and for the first time tonight, the euphoric rendition of Vitamin C sees the audience encapsulated in a joyous fluidity of animation, transcendent of the venue’s humble capacity.

Seeing the night out with Emily, Clean Cut Kid are greeted with passionate chants of 'there is a hole in your heart', leaving just one word to describe the gig in its entirety: joy.