The Walkmen @ The Liquid Room

During their debut Edinburgh performance, on the eve of the release of debut album 'Movie Monster', Texan sextet Sound Team (4 Skinnys) own The Liquid Room tonight. Fuzzed up bass and squealing synthesizers have Adam's apples bouncing around the jugular as they calculatedly smack anything that makes a satisfactory racket and prowl around like chameleons with no fixed musical fashion. Stellar sounds, exhilarating stuff and mission accomplished.

You can't help but think that somebody's bandwagon has been too critical of The Walkmen (3 Skinnys). At their most energetic they follow the lead from fellow New Yorkers Interpol and The Strokes, though they never appear as clones. Then, at their more withdrawn and countryesque, there's a curious Pogues-like quality to what they do, particularly in Hamilton Leithauser's slurred howl. Perhaps premature, but notably strong performances of Little House of Savages and signature tune The Rat in all its racing Three Blind Mice-like melodic glory make it a close call - but tonight arguably belongs to the introduction of their Texan touring buddies. [Dave Kerr]