Hookworms, Birthdays, London

There isn’t room to move freely within the crowded basement. Bobble-hatted twenty-somethings stand side-by-side with grey-haired rockers, all nodding in unison. Five men on stage perform synchronised twitching whilst lost, each seemingly completely in a world of their own. And then there’s the noise. Welcome to the swirling, incessant psych-rock of Hookworms.

Sometime earlier, Tense Men take to the stage to present their two-man post punk assault. Rudimentary in its form, wonderfully off-kilter guitar moments stumble in and out of the songs. The scrappiness of it all adds to their performance, giving the feel of something partially improvised or off-the-cuff. It’s a great start to a show and sets things up nicely for the bold rock-outs of TRAAMS.

With a clunk and a growl, TRAAMS begin with ‘See You’, ironically. They’re rough and aggressive, yet punchy and well rehearsed. Their set flows from punk rock bangers like ‘Flowers’ – not dissimilar to ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’ era Supergrass – into their own brand of kraut infected repetition, in the form of ‘Klaus’.

When the glasses come off, some kind of Superman-esque transformation takes place with MJ from Hookworms - the meek, mild-mannered sound engineer by day becomes a conduit for musical expression by night. He flails around, possessed by the music as it’s realised, living and breathing every moment of each song.

Through their mainly continuous set - which rarely allows us or them chance for respite – Hookworms’ noise swirls around the basement of Birthdays, enveloping all. They tease us as the delicate wonders of ‘In Our Time’ and ‘What We Talk About’ – true stand-out tracks from their debut album - are left for another occasion. But it doesn’t matter, as if I was a betting man, I’d wager many of this crowd will be coming back for more.