Dry Cleaning @ Summerhall, Edinburgh, 18 Feb

Openers PVA are gleefully uncategorisable: post-electroclash? Stereolab in the club? Whatever they're doing (live drums, spoken vocals, synths everywhere), it works. Their infectious enthusiasm, including a hi-hat making its way into the crowd during one particularly intense fill, is a great primer and palpably raises the excitement for Dry Cleaning.

Florence Shaw takes the old public speaking advice about gazing six inches above everyone's heads to extremes. She spends most of the show staring intently into the air, as though she's trying to figure out if that ghost in the top corner of the room is someone she went to school with. She has an aggressively static stage presence, one that gels perfectly with the deadpan delivery of her stream-of-consciousness non-sequiturs.

Regardless of the guitar theatrics (Unsmart Lady, Scratchcard Lanyard, Conversation), percussive bombast or rubbery funk bass, Shaw remains unflappably consistent. The occasional bit of tambourine, shaker or tape recorder add a little spice to her repertoire, but it's mostly a joy just to hear the sarcastic, irreverent tales from last year's brilliant New Long Leg pour forth.

The hushed nature of the vocals mean that they do occasionally get swallowed up in the mix, especially on louder songs like Unsmart Lady and Tony Speaks! Tom Dowse's guitar is more prominent live than on record, and he mines feedback and reverb to create a more intense wall of sound than might be expected.

Scratchcard Lanyard is the predictably big main set closer, the crowd bopping a little more confidently than when the first movement began during Magic of Meghan. The encore consists of Conversation, a nice hark back to their earliest work and proof that the band can barrel into a furious breakdown with the best of them.

Loud, quiet, sincere, ironic – Dry Cleaning take it all in their stride and never fail to thrill.

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Photos by Lucy Webb