Xbox Reverb with Dananananaykroyd, Birmingham Rainbow

It may be due to Freshers week or it may be down to under-promotion, but this freebie gig courtesy of Mr Gates and chums wasn't exactly heaving. Birmingham's Rainbow Warehouse seemed to have more technology than people, with Xboxes, Beatles Rock Band and smartpoints where a swipe of your gig pass updated your Twitter.

Which was a shame, because the bands on offer - Findo Gask, Copy Haho and Dananananaykroyd - were superb entertainment, and not just for their bizarre monikers.

First up were Findo Gask, who rival We Are Scientists for speccy cool and play an intriguing mix of rock, disco, funk, general electrobleepery and... a trumpet. It's a great show but the music seems destined to be enjoyed more live than on record. Indeed their trump card is actually the interchangeable line-up, in which band members swap their instruments like swingers swap car keys.

Copy Haho, conversely, had a more straightforward indie-rock sound. In the main fast and melodic, and driven by a beautiful black and white guitar, this quartet showed a lot of potential. One or two stronger mid-set songs and these boys could have a big future - even if their frontman looks like Murray Hewitt. Let's hope he's not their manager.

And so it was down to Dananananaykroyd to make a half-empty warehouse come to life. It didn't start great, as very low microphone levels meant that not only their breakneck shouty vocals, but the between-song conflabs as well, were difficult to hear. We weren't ignoring you, honest!

Then, genius. Sensing something was needed to kick the party off, the boys had the crowd remove the stage barriers and split into two groups. On the count of 4, the factions were to run at each other, merge and hug. "4" came, hugs flew and the band fired into action again. The Tuesday night shackles were well and truly thrown off.

There must be something in the Irn-Bru up there - the Scottish band's mind-blowingly energetic finale was a hugely impressive and well-received spectacle and it completed a big victory from the jaws of gigging defeat.

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