Metro Riots @ Cardiff Barfly, 12 October

Destination heaven or destination hell...

The Metro Riots party blazed into the rather cute surroundings of the Cardiff Barfly even though the recent release of their debut album Night Time Angel Candy has splashed their name across the mainstream press. It promises much although something isn't quite right with the restrictive stage size. But it's goin' to be good anyway and you knows it!

Led from the front by the ever-dapper Damo, going on stage at 10pm on a Friday evening leaves them little time to make their impression before the club night kicks in. It seems like a travesty, and inevitably some songs will miss out. But like a short, half-hour burst of intense energy, the band don't hang about.

But first the lip service. The boy/girl combo of the first support act were hardly enthusing as a welcome act for when you walk in through the door, but they at least they were better than Noughts and Crosses, a lacklustre one-man show armed with an acoustic guitar and very little else. It hardly seems like the adequate build-up that the main attraction both deserve and arguably need.

Strutting, nay, swaggering on stage with an imposing presence, the bluesy rock of the London band resonates throughout the venue in a cacophony of euphoric grooves. So they had to leave Butcher of Hollywood out - don't all bands omit the best at some point? The wailing vocals of Damo lure you in and spit you out after a brief stint in utopia between.

The most apt word for the proceedings is 'frenzy'; a whirlwind created by the art of exciting song writing - compulsive foot-tapping and finger pointing. It rocks, and suddenly it ends. Someone's warming up the Arctic Monkeys for the club night afterwards on the stereogram. They can shove that, the Metro Riots are the band to get you moving on a Friday night and most of the people filing in as the set ends may never even realise it.

But you can't help some.