Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah! - 7 July - The Forum, London

With a busy weekend of festivals looming, the timing of Friday’s Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! gig could have been better thought out. The Brooklyn five-piece played their biggest date in London so far, prior to heading to Scotland and Ireland for T in the Park and Oxegen appearances respectively.

The band seem to be conserving their energy, annoyingly, by shuffling aimlessly on stage at half past nine and carrying out their sound check in front of us as their opening number. The boys have a blistering eponymous debut album to show off, but they’re going to make us work for it – by testing our patience.

‘Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away’ opens proceedings and, despite an enthusiastic response from the audience, the band aren’t biting yet. It’s not until they play ‘Is This Love?’ 20 minutes later, followed by the euphoric ‘The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth’ that things move up several gears, the band starting to enjoy themselves as much as everyone else. The change is so drastic that the fear is that they may have peaked too quickly and too soon.

Such concerns are allayed, thankfully, with ‘Details of the War’ – the closest CYHSY have to a ballad (there’s even a lighter being waved about down the front)- going down a treat. A couple of new tracks are trotted out, which suggest the first album was no fluke. Indeed the band are so tight and up for it (at last), this must have been what it was like to see REM play in the early 80s. There’s nothing to say this lot can’t emulate such success.

Mention must be made of Alec Ounsworth’s yelping vocals, which are an acquired taste. Album opener and encore ‘Clap Your Hands!’ is a case in point but, like the runt of the litter, even the ugliest ones earn their own love.