The vibe at Prince Bandroom was relaxed as I arrived, with anticipation slowly building for what lay ahead for the night. A few kids had already claimed their spots in front of the stage, and I was one of them. (Amazingly enough, I ended up right next to FasterLouder photographer Jess.)

The gig was running about 20 minutes behind schedule, with support act El Guincho due to start at 9.15pm, but not taking the stage till a little after 9.30pm. El Guincho, also known as Pablo Días-Reixa, is a one-man band from Barcelona, whose happy and infectious tunes soon had the crowd moving. He was a brilliant warm-up for the main event.

The restless crowd got louder as the techs finished setting the stage up, and as Architecture in Helsinki hit the stage, whoops and hollers rang out across the room, followed by applause. They opened with an older track called Do The Whirlwind, followed seamlessly by Hold Music, their first single from latest album Places Like This. Frenchy, I’m Faking came soon after, giving the crowd a chance to rest before they amped it up again with an energetic unreleased song that got the entire band dancing as well.

Frontman Cameron Bird swapped electric for acoustic for Nothing’s Wrong, which got the crowd singing along again, and through Like It Or Not, and Lazy (Lazy). Old favourite The Cemetery got a workout, as did Wishbone. The Architecture in Helsinki members were constantly swapping positions and instruments, except for the bass player – he was the only constant, but crazy all the same. Frontwoman Kellie Sutherland got excited at the amount of people, and kept asking the tech to turn the houselights up, down, up, down, up, and down again before exclaiming excitedly, “I’ve got the best job in the world!”

The band closed with Debbie and departed the stage the same way they entered, with the cheers and screams and applause behind them. After a couple of minutes, they re-entered, with Cameron saying, “Last time I did this here, I lost my voice!” The encore was relatively low-key, but still fantastic nevertheless, with Maybe You Can Owe Me, a cover of Break My Stride (a hit from 1984), and Heart It Races as the closing piece.

If you enjoy amazing, energetic live shows, then Architecture in Helsinki are the band to see.