Peter Cat @ The Mash House, Edinburgh, 21 Nov

Edinburgh-based electronic duo Boardgame open proceedings tonight with an improvised piece that fuses synthetic, harmonic and choral sounds, before folkish, steampunk-inspired band Sunday Driver add a dark and moody feel to the night. Lead singer Chandy Nath’s vocals are strong and bewildering, but slightly overpowered by the drums at times. Nevertheless, Nath’s voice, reminiscent of a young Kate Bush, combined with grungy strings, including the sitar, makes for an essential spookiness in preparation for the grotesquely fascinating Peter Cat performance set to follow.

With a tendency to transition between tracks with a brief silence followed by a clean blast of noise, Peter Cat regularly pulls the audience into their realm as they run through tracks from their latest album, Starchamber. Combining bass, electric guitar and drums with lead Graham Gillespie’s quintessential analog synthesiser creates a sultry and transcendental soundscape, enlivened by Gillespie’s sinuous physique. During their performance of Old Goat, Gillespie balances on the edge of the stage shouting the lyrics, 'I was born to do it / I was born to perform'. In that moment, it starts to make sense; Gillespie belongs on the stage.

A special shoutout, however, should go to guitarist Kylie MacNaughton whose riffing towards the end is so painfully impressive, the audience are fixated and can't help but profusely headbang, forgetting only for a minute about the show’s constant star, Gillespie. Lyrics are woven with a feeling of surrender to the darker forces – shame and guilt – that command the band’s performance, with Gillespie singing in slow speech, 'Life is a scary and impenetrable thing, baby / So kiss the ring'. The lyrics, like the bandmates, rhyme together with a creepy twang; it's a gift to witness a group so in harmony with one another. The band forms a brain and a sound that is challenging but alluring, and never boring. Peter Cat demand you to embrace the absurd, especially if you are, like Gillespie in The Power of Positive Thinking, 'unbothered and full of shame'.