Standing moodily in a smoke-filled corner while watching equally solemn bands listlessly twiddle with their instruments is not post-ironic or enigmatic, it’s just wank. Genuine enthusiasm need not be an impediment to your pursuit of the ever-elusive hipster nirvana. Tonight’s lineup knows this. Dancing is fun. Take note.

Pip Branson Corporation is a name that brings to mind gentlemen’s clubs, tweed, hearty guffawing, and an executive’s stress-related nervous twitch. The band itself is a similar mix of studied manic tension, jerky pop choruses colliding with sharp wizzing guitars. The stoic professionalism of the singer barely contains the gurgling electricity within him until the last song, when he snaps and musical currents surge through him.

The dual drumkits of Wolf & Cub beckon first, sitting obediently on the stage, teasing with all the possibilities. The drummers are the stars of the band, the ebb and flow of scattered patterns crashing into relentless waves of bass and sporadic screams of guitar. It’s a dance-inducing storm of psych-rock melodic noise, as evidenced by the frontman. His skinny jean-clad pins twitch feverishly while drones spiral around him like some conspiracy-filled nightmare. It’s hypnotic, to say the least.

More bands should have bassists like the one in Bit By Bats. While most are the shy and retiring type (read: dull as fuck to watch), this one has embraced the notion that dance moves and playing bass are not mutually exclusive. He wretches his body around to their ‘80s post-punk wiry guitar nostalgia, dropping to his knees to the desperate yelping of his bandmate, and you expect doves to be released and snow and confetti to drift down on them through shimmering stars.

The Grates is the cute raucous babysitter at the kid’s birthday party handing out balloons and winking at you with a ‘meet me in the cupboard’ grin. There is a simultaneous playfulness and vixen-like seduction which exists within the band – you only need to watch Patience as she purrs into the microphone before jumping around with the reckless abandon of a little kid through a sprinkler. She is the eternal conflict between pure Christian thoughts and red-lettered guilty feelings of lust, and you are powerless to resist.