Say @ The Loft, 7 Jul

On a Saturday night at the Three Sisters, you have to battle to get to The Loft - through toddling fairies and laughing devils, leering superheros and drunken pirates. Emerging unscathed, it is unshaven men in T-shirts you find upstairs for Is This Music?, and it's a reasonable turnout considering T In The Mud is just up the road.

Plastic Animals (***) start us off with crunchy, aggressive guitars and impressively frantic drumming. The bassist's T-shirt depicts an angry child - which seems fitting when the singer, after flatly mumbling his verses, clears his throat with a raspily roared chorus, like a kid throwing a hissy-fit. They have some good ideas, and the use of different rhythms and time signatures is always welcome, but the vocal melodies often follow the music too closely, and the intervening throaty screams don't always make up for those meandering points.

Next up is The Scottish Enlightenment (**) who, intro aside, have by far the best songs of the night. Unfortunately, they are all hamstrung by weak, flat vocals and a totally uninspiring vocalist. Each track is brilliantly developed with clear melodies and strong hooks, but in my imagination the band deserve to be augmented with agile, distinctive singing and a frontman who looks like he gives a fuck. With a makeover like that, The Scottish Enlightenment could be dazzling.

With tinkling bells, bright colours and enthusiasm to spare, Say (***) instantly appeal to the inner child in us all, but their happy-clappy ethos starts to grate. Say try to counter the superficial impression that optimistic music gives with the odd foray into Radiohead-esque minor-chord atmospherics, but it's difficult to tell on one listen if this is convincingly integrated, or just tacked-on. To their credit, they're distinguishable from the similarly sunny Magic Numbers because songs like Sugar Brown have unpredictable, almost proggy structures. Say must be an acquired taste, and on balance it seems a taste worth acquiring. [Ally Brown]