Seeing a band such as The Almighty in such an intimate setting is a rare treat, but rarely is a treat sweetened so well by tonight's opening act. It's been a long time since I had last caught Sunlounger (two years I think) and fuck me have they improved or what?! What was a good little band is now a shit-hot one, with years on the toilet circuit have helped perfect their kick-you-hard-in-the-bollocks Groop Dogdrill-influenced full on racket. Expect big things.

Expect a good laugh at the next band. Fydolla Ho are (now let me use my usual diplomatic stance here) awful. The band themselves are competent enough but are ruined by the frontwoman's total inability to hit a note. She, in fact, seems more concerned with acting the sex kitten than with being a vocalist, and unfortunately forgot to include either the sex or the kitten in the package. Note to female singers, sexiness is not dribbling/spitting water down your clothes in order to get your breasts wet. Her performance was pathetic, laughable and totally off-key (being visibly and audibly). Note to rest of band - new singer required pronto.

The Almighty pounded straight into 'Broken Machine' and immediately the bulging-at-the-seams Underworld is bouncing in unison. A set heavily reliant on new material early on does show the strength of the new stuff, and Ricky and the boys' confidence in it. The likes of album opener 'Galvanise', '427 Freak Horse Power' and 'Soul On A Roll' are corking little tunes, as strong as anything released during The Almighty's hey-day. 'Do You Understand?' and '360' hark back to the earlier era, but it's 'Addiction' half way through the set that sends Camden several shades of mental. The band are tight, loud, and clearly loving every minute of tonight.

The finale of the set is the beautiful 'Waiting For Earthquakes' and a scintillating rendition of 'Wrench' - 400 throats yelling "WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON!" in unison included, before the band depart to the usual 'Al-fuckin'-mighty' chant. Returning yet again to praise the crowd, we get treated to 'Jonestown Mind', 'Wild And Wonderful' and 'Crank' before the band leave once more to a hero's roar. Fucking superb.

Joe Dimmer