Tonight is special, very special. Both sides of the spectrum, the band and the audience are intertwined, enveloping the Scala, eliminating the foulness in the air reminiscent of a public swimming pool. You see it is hot, very hot. We all have to sweat, pour ourselves into the pot and really plunge into this music.

DeVotchKa, celebrating the release of A Mad and Faithful Telling, are intensely appreciative of this. They see sweat and respond with a tuba honk or razor-sharp fiddle solo. Tonight is not ordinary in any sense. This is a traditional band, once renowned for inviting circus performers onstage to accompany melodies with interpretive dance, now on display to the most contemporary of audiences. Everyone around me defines the here-and-now, both in fashion and demeanour. DeVotchKa, however, is a dated beast. They still use an upright bass, forgo any use of electronics for tubas, fiddles and acoustic guitars, and are closer to klezmer than electro. But the quartet, whether it's new material off the album or traditional Eastern-European tales on older albums, is in ecstasy on stage. Tradition will be celebrated tonight.

Some songs summon an upright bass, other a tuba; some are waltzes, other ones polka. Once the choices are made, everything is placed on top of comforting pop sensibilities, making the traditions easier to dive into and the contemporary easier to escape. With each passing song, they straddle both sides contentedly. This is musical anachronism. Some songs live deep within the modern inner city - the gorgeous ‘How It Ends’, for example, that defined Little Miss Sunshine - while others live in years past, surrounded by plaid dresses, hair-curtain handkerchiefs and washing boards. The tuba on ‘Twenty-Six Temptations’ recalls a 19th Century Polish beer hall dance, while ‘Queen Of The Surface Streets’ ebbs from centuries past to present in about four minutes.

It’s all gone too quickly. A blink and it’s the encore. ‘You Only Love Me When You’re Leaving’ surfaces, a pulsating waltz sung whilst wrapped in a corset adorned with silver studs. It's serene. We shake, almost uncontrollably, as an accordion and an increasingly up-tempo tuba rhythm lead the song to climax. It’s nearly half eleven, well past curfew, and DeVotchKa remain partying on stage, turning what should be a five-minute song into a ten-minute jam, replete with trumpet interlude and guitar solo. This is surely time travel at its best.

Photo: MySpace