Downtown Boys @ Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, 13 Oct

As Rhode Island punks Downtown Boys get ready to rip, something feels a bit off. This is most evident in Victoria Ruiz, the band's usually frantic and commanding lead vocalist, who stands almost static for opener Lips That Bite as she struggles to squeeze out her words with the same intense energy she's become known for. After running right into I'm Enough (I Want More), also from new album, Cost of Living, Ruiz makes a poignant address to the crowd, setting up next song Promissory Note as if reciting poetry while visibly upset and choking back tears. It soon appears that something, possibly even quite personal, is very wrong.

While the band begin to settle in and take the reins, Ruiz shakes her head and digs deep for focus, getting stronger with each song but clearly still struggling with something. By the end of rip-roaring new single Somos Chulas (No Somos Pendejas), the group are really coming into their own; a truly formidable force of righteous guitar, triumphant sax and a battering rhythm section, pogoing, shouting and hammering the hell out of everything.

We can see something rising in Ruiz as she reacts to them, becoming increasingly more animated, and by the final chorus she's throwing absolutely everything she's got into her words, ending the song with tears streaming down her face. However, it's only after a blistering cover of Poder Elegir by Chilean group Los Prisioneros, written in protest to the Pinochet dictatorship, that Ruiz finally lets her guard down and announces that she's been suffering from an excruciating earache and has been fighting through the pain all night. Catching a breath, she apologises and says she owes us another show; but she's already giving us one. At this point, something clicks and she sets about straight-up steamrolling the place. 

Prowling the stage like she's preaching the real good news, Ruiz and the Downtown Boys dive headlong into the uncomfortable murk of modern day socio-political issues across the board – from systemic racism, capitalist corruption and myriad social inequalites – and take a show once informed by pain and turn it into loud, triumphant joy. The engine is not just purring right now, it's roaring, as Wave of History, and A Wall – as metaphorically significant as it is a literal reaction to Trump's America – bring us closer to a fist-pumping finish tonight.

Not many bands can take a time of trouble and strife and turn it into something truly moving and exciting, but also massively enjoyable, and perhaps that's them all over. Spreading a message of hope as well as defiance, confrontation and non-compliance, Downtown Boys also bring with them an overwhelming positivity even against the odds. Getting called back quickly for "ONE MORE TUNE", the band end the show all smiles and guitarist Joey DeFrancesco hits Ruiz with a well-deserved high five, while we're left begging the question: what the hell are they like at full power?!