These are lean times for Irish bands; the number which really set the pulse racing is disappointingly low. So the rise of a band with a bit of spunk is cause for a minor celebration, even if Snow Patrol now reside in Dundee.
Essentially a three-piece guitar band with added funky chicken scratches and samples, their sound is hard to pin down. The laziest comparison is with The Undertones, as their best moments come at 100 m.p.h., with power chords at full blast. But they are actually masters of pastiche, cunningly throwing together all sorts of styles in a post-modern, art school kind of way, emphasised by the lavish visuals of astronauts, spaceships and computer malfunctions projected behind the band.
The excellent Starfighter Pilot was incendiary. But best of all was the feeling that this is a band on an upward curve.