Why why why do we live in a world populated by ears unwilling to feast on new sounds? Why is it people will pay money to see a band they know and not even bother with the support because they’ve maybe never heard them before or for whatever unknown to me reason? You’ve paid the money. What harm can it do? And essentially you might even be passing on the best band of the night. In this case, a lot of people did.

Playing to about twenty people, Fonda 500 were a mad cap, insanity fuelled buzz of power punk, ramshackle electronics and droning, fuzzed-up wall of sound guitars. Sat hunched over his keyboard like a mad evil genius plotting world domination, the singer mixed groovy, hip funk rap vocals a la Happy Mondays Shaun Ryder with the scalp of a giant panda on his head pulled down tight over his eyes. The bassist looked like some kind of eighties bubble gum pop princess with knee-high diamond patterned socks on. And indeed, the entire band in one way or another looked like an odd mis-match of various styles thrown together in a hurricane of obscurious weirdness. No doubt if stood in front of Simon ‘Pop Idol’ whatsisname I am sure he would be suffering convulsions over just how warped they appeared to be.

One minute intense, the next playful, this was perhaps one of the coolest bands I have ever had the pleasure of seeing live. They pass themselves off as could-care-less, laid-back amateurs playing without any kind of a script or method, but they do it with an almost practised professionalism that projects an instant coolness. So cool in fact that before the last song had even finished the singer was picking up his jacket and getting ready to pack away. And just two minutes before that he was standing on top of a speaker at the front of the stage holding his keyboard high above his head, definitely contemplating throwing it to the ground. I should imagine that had the crowd have been larger this would have been carried out.

Performing frazzled sci-fi scuz pop hairier than an episode of the twilight zone you didn’t know what exactly was coming next, other than that it would be loud, possibly crunchy, and most certainly mind bogglingly brilliant. For a lazy journalistic reference I would suggest Fonda 500 are bully beef from the dandy comic, and they’ve turned The Beta Band and Schneider TM on their heads and shook all the interesting musical sounds often found emitting from both out their pockets and stole it for themselves. Then mixing it up they’ve taken their music and thrown it down hard on a land mine and let it splatter outwards.

Fonda 500 were an amazing and truly wonderful feast of sound that played with your senses. They had everyone eating out of their hands, and begging for more, and dancing like they were part of their mad cap cartoon world. And in many ways to be able to pigeon hole them into any one type of music would be like trying to putt a cannon ball into the ninth hole with a tennis racket. I feel very sorry for the ticket holders who didn’t bother to turn up for this.

Longview took to the stage second. Looking like an advert for anti dandruff shampoo with their flowing locks of golden fleecy hair, I initially expected them to be yawn-inspired Strokes-a-likes. Fortunately they weren’t. Unfortunately they were a bit of a yawn. Drawing their strength from Indy miserabilist shoe gazer specialists Lowgold, there were hints of Coldplay and Goldrush in there too. I expect that given time they will no doubt happily become NME lovies bigged up as the next big British thing.

The hall by this time had begun to fill up quite considerably but I don’t know why. To be frank I personally found Longview quite tiresome. I even ventured upstairs to the bar for a drink and I never do that at a gig. I suspect my main problem with the band is that after Fonda 500 I was expecting so much more and it just wasn’t delivered.

They had one saving grace in the form of quite often soaring ballads with the music swimming through the air like a bird in the wind occasionally drafting itself into rock out territory. It was graceful, poignant and sometimes melodic. Heads were bobbing throughout the set and there were points it threatened to snare me. But the lead singer's voice was just so damn perfect it was boring. There was no flaws, no strain, no raw energy being passed through the microphone that just wanted me to stand up and listen. And they didn’t move, they didn’t jump around, they didn’t smash anything. There was no show. No real sign of interaction with the audience. And that’s something that’s every bit as important as the music.

Finally, Athlete, a strange, quirky guitar band that’s a little odd, but yes, a little different. And doubly yes, not to be compared to your normal whimsical indy banal. Crackly, plucky electro noises, a guitar that ducks and dives more than a dodgy wheeler dealer at an east end market and an alternative twist to the Gomez, Super Furry’s sound. The song probably stuck in most people’s minds will be ‘You Got the Style’, which the singer Joel Pott tells us spent a week at number 37 in the charts. Far better live than the version on cd. And with a nice mid section that actually teetered on rock tinged danceable. They had a lot of fun tonight and largely pulled a good crowd. And songs were lengthened with twisted electro boggling soundscape, but in all they often finished too sudden, leaving people mid dance. And in places it was all a bit, well, shambolic. Perhaps that was meant to be part of their sound but sadly it just didn’t strike a chord with me, and while largely entertaining on the night it’ll take a lot more for them to be remembered beyond.

Please note the four stars is for Fonda 500 -please deduct one for the others.