Monday 02/03/09 The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Dimbleby and Capper @ Cargo, London

Shoreditch, former bastion of the working-class, has long been an enclave of creative cool, distancing itself from the surrounding urban decay of Hackney, through pre-emptive fashion faux pas, impotence inducing skinny jeans and what the fuck haircuts. Tonight, the vast yet unassuming Cargo, which in keeping with the industrial conversion and gentrification of the area is located beneath three disused railway arches, welcomes The Asteroids Galaxy Tour back to the UK.

First up tonight and performing solo under the musical guise Dimbleby & Capper is 21 year old Goldsmiths undergraduate Laura Bettison, who in a bid to outstrip those who delight in wearing hearts on sleeves, goes one step further by wearing her moniker, emblazoned in black marker-pen, on her chest. Standing solitary on stage with nothing but a rogue smoke machine and electrical box of beats, loops and other assorted necessities for company, her short set which includes ‘Never Mind No’, ‘Structure’ and ‘Beautiful But Boring’ perfectly suits the sultry, dark-eyed, hands-on-hips confidence her demeanour exudes. But while her exotic take on DIY urban electro-pop combined with a vocal capable of outshining many of her peers is mesmerising, Dimbleby & Capper live could fall foul of its own artistic vision as more spit and shine is needed to bolster her performance but too much risks deconstructing her unpolished promise.

With no sign of the Monday blues, tonight’s sell out audience is a multinational one, a fair split of English and Scandinavian alongside a smattering of curious Japanese, who wait with almost anxious fervour for The Asteroids Galaxy Tour to troop exuberantly onto a stage barely big enough to contain their live compliment. Dressed with hippy-chic abandon in front of a kaleidoscopically enhanced Pearl and Dean back-wall projection, vocalist Mette Lindberg wastes no time in cutting a music box figurine pose to match the sedate opener ‘Hero’, an exercise that readies both audience and band for the big brass of ‘The Golden Age’ a move which successfully incites an epidemic of head bobbing both on and off stage. It’s only two songs into a 45 minute set and already the band are performing more as an experienced group than previous gigs have witnessed, a shared and replicated energy obviously having the desired effect on all concerned. Embracing their escapist song-writing with an act that borders on the theatrical, ‘Around The Bend’ (made famous by the iPod Touch commercial) allows Lars Iversen to trade keyboard for bass and proudly parade an outfit of shades, arctic hat and gold medallion to rival all gold medallions as he rocks from left to right to ‘Bad Fever’ before ‘Crazy’, ‘Sunshine Coolin’ and ‘Lady Jesus’ further promote the accumulative party vibe, with intense brass, organ and vocals boldly adding to a swirling lava-lamp of sight and sound.

Appreciative and resilient, the crowd are taking everything The Asteroids Galaxy Tour have to throw at them but are clearly waiting patiently for a big pay off, one that comes by holding the room to ransom with the instantly recognisable ‘The Sun Ain’t Shining No More’. Unfortunately like all good school night parties, they tend to end suddenly, this one being no exception, as ‘Satellite’ sends an all smiling band scurrying backstage. But school night or not, tonight’s audience have a seemingly insatiable appetite and succeed in demanding an instantly forthcoming, but brief, one song encore as ‘Push The Envelope’ closes an all singing all dancing show; one that reiterates a determined confidence and finely tuned live performance from a band that justify the months of hype surrounding an as yet unreleased debut album.