Weird War are - so they claim - a band on a mission. Following on from hardcore Dischord sloganeers Nation of Ulysses' 13 Point Program To Destroy America, Ian F. Svenonius' current gang of rock and roll anarchists, recently joined by Trans Am sticksmith Sebastian Thomas, plan to change the world through subliminal messaging, imbuing their "vacuous" party music (their word, not mine, dear reader) with symbols, satire and loaded references and turning the tables on the status quo.

Their gelatinous funk is punctuated with posed beat-poet anecdote and theatrical soliloquy that slides into song, and it's near-impossible to mark a line between the two. A cellphone's pulled out, a mock conversation is held - "Why? I dunno..." and it mutates into the itchy spunk-soul of 'Why Do Guys Like Girls Like That?'. Indeed, Svenonius' fey, stop-start "...wait! Uh... Yeeeaaah. I like this music... Hold on! What. Shh!" jive rhetoric seems more integral to the entire performance than 90% of the musical output... and therein lies the problem.

Playing the geek-chic lounge-lizard and burying his tongue in the hollows of his cheeks, Svenonius introduces himself as the "greatest living poet", before another spasm of sordid bass guitar sends him jerking across the stage and reaching into a ceiling-scratching James Brown squeal. Undeniably, his cabaret persona is the focus of the band. The audience here assembled are more engaged between songs, laughing at his one-liners and shooting friendly catcalls, than during the music, when all that separates DiS and Weird War is a small pool of motionless heads.

Weird War flirt so saucily with parody that the gimmick overtakes the music. The initial rubbery grooves, so promising for the first few tantalising seconds, rarely explode into anything more than a spattering of squealing solos, and the songs and themes fail to claw their way into your mind to take seditionary root within you. It somewhat deflates Weird War's quasi-revolutionary manifesto. It's not that it's not entertaining; Weird War put on a funny, engaging show. It's just that the novelty's worn off before they leave the stage.