It's been a while since the last time we saw The Students, but from the sounds of this they've been keeping themselves busy. "Busy how?" I hear you ask; "Rehearsing their stop-starts and tempo changes to within a tightly harmonised nanosecond of each other?" Well, not exactly. While just as unsteady and unpredictable as ever, they've revamped a lot of their songs, with a nifty new intro to "Marin Marin" and poppy older song "Kowarenai-Suiheisen" brought out of retirement to balance out the screechier moments nicely.

Archaic Smile are the only band tonight with a record deal. They're Mr. Children playing theme songs from giant robot anime with a lot of enthusiasm and self-love, and it's not very good.

Much more promising are Stroboneko. There's a lot of "Zukan" era Quruli to the first couple of tracks but it's after that that it really takes off. Synchronised stabs of guitar, bass and drums give way to ear-splitting noise and revert back again before you can say "tinnitus". They're at their best when they restrain their energy, letting out the fury in short, sharply controlled bursts, and so when they let it all hang out on their final song, it lacks the focus and excitement of earlier tracks. Nevertheless, hats off to a fine band. Keep your eyes open for future gigs.

Last up tonight are The Swindles. They play a pretty familiar type of old-time rockabilly boogie with vaguely Joe Strummer-esque vocals, but the best, and most noticeable thing about them is the way, a few guitar solos aside, that they let the piano run riot as the lead instrument for most of the set. Key-abuser extraordinaire Mizuki knows when to turn on the style, just as she knows when to hammer away at the keyboard with her palms, fists, elbows, feet, and face, like a drunken Viking trying to format his hard drive. It's derivative, but it's delivered with such joy and assurance that for the duration of the show it's easy to put that aside, and if you listen carefully enough, there are some pretty striking songs nestled in there as well. -Ian Martin, Jul.10.04