17.20, Carling Stage

CALLA tune up nervously in front of what is a pitifully small crowd, perhaps aware that they’re out of sync with the brash rock ‘n’ roll ethos of most of the other bands on the bill. Eschewing the hedonistic party spirit of their New York contemporaries on today’s bill, this four-piece sound like Interpol if once a week they removed The Smiths and Joy Division from the stereo and slipped on a Sonic Youth LP. Arty and dark, they’re not to everyone’s tastes, perhaps guilty of taking themselves too seriously (much like Interpol) - but songs like ‘Strangler’ from their last record Televise possess an icy and aching resonance that I find wholly alluring. On an extended set-closing version of ‘Televised’, frontman and Stuart Braithwaite lookalike Aurelio Valle launches into some angular guitar pyrotechnics which ensures that they burn out rather than fade away. Am I too easily pleased? Well, possibly – but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that Calla are a fine band.