Tom Tom Club @ O2ABC2, 20 July

The ABC’s smaller room represents an underwhelming venue for a visit from New York legends Tom Tom Club, but their irrepressible enthusiasm – all the more remarkable for an outfit now in their thirtieth year – ensures a lively atmosphere. Using six members, the band recreate the new wave-meets-hip hop template crafted in the early eighties almost entirely with live instruments, eschewing drum programming or heavy sampling. The result tends to have less of the bubblegum-pop sharpness of the records, but allows new dimensions within the music to emerge.

Perhaps inevitably, the night’s highpoints are the twin commercial pinnacles of Tom Tom Club’s career, Genius of Love and Wordy Rappinghood; the latter sounding particularly impressive in a live context, which infuses it with a heavier feel. Beyond these crowd-pleasers, a slight lack of well-known songs can’t be ignored. Consequently, we’re treated to a range of covers, including You Sexy Thing, which mutates here into a cartoonishly hyperactive version of its former self. Throughout, the band look as enthused to be performing together as if their career has only just begun; and it’s that sense, above all, which confirms the enduring distinctiveness and personality of their approach. [Sam Wiseman]