Deerhunter’s singer, lead guitarist, songwriter and all-round driving force Bradford Cox has garnered something of a reputation for onstage presentation verging on the surreal, performing whilst plastered in fake-blood and attired in becoming sundresses.

No such shenanigans tonight however, an enthused crowd packed into The Dome – the dilapidated old dance-hall in Tufnell Park, not the one at Greenwich, obviously – being treated to a soberly dressed Cox fastidiously fussing between (and during) songs with an amp that steadfastly refused to behave. “It’s a grunge amp,” he grinned during the encore, apologising for perceived technical difficulties – not that anyone cared by that point, the band having turned on a superb, eardrum-bursting show.

Deerhunter produce a much larger sound live than one might suspect from a listen to any of their recordings. Not big enough for Cox however, his shattering electric constantly straining to punch through some imagined threshold to a My Bloody Valentine kind of level of noise.

Something along those lines anyway, hence his running frustration with the amp, although vocal balance was just as much of a problem, his reedy voice often becoming lost in the mix.

Material from their upcoming LP Microcastle was fantastic, single ‘Nothing Ever Happened’ for example, supple pop-rock giving way to a gigantic, trance-inducing wall of guitar. The fact that practically every song fitted this formula didn’t bother anyone a bit, most happy to gyrate back and forth and let the guitars (three of them! woo!) wash over. Let’s hope they come again soon.

photo: Rachel Lipsitz