The Postelles, DC9, Washington DC

New York’s Postelles played Saturday night for a loud and appreciative crowd in Washington. Early this year Zane Lowe played ‘White Night’, the title track of the band’s first EP, on his evening Radio1 programme. That this kind of sound is hitting the spot isn’t that big a surprise, considering England is producing some great, good time rock ‘n’ roll bands like Sheffield’s Crookes and Sunderland’s Frankie and the Heartstrings as of late.

The Postelles have already got their feet wet on the British music scene, having opened for the Futureheads on a spring tour this year and playing a headlining gig at London’s Koko. They’ve also signed to EMI / Capitol, which is a good indication that things are on the up and up for these four young native New Yorkers. The release of their self-titled debut album, produced in part by Albert Hammond Jr. of the Strokes, is just on the horizon.

What made the Beatles so great: amazing songwriting bolstered by fantastic instrumentation and timeless lyrics. The Postelles have a similar formula, writing catchy pop tunes that are guaranteed to get stuck in your head for weeks to come. Live, they’re even more engaging: they’re having so much fun onstage, it’s impossible not to join in the party. Songs like ‘Sleep on the Dance Floor’ and the call-and-response of ‘Hey Little Sister’ (the latter featuring lead guitarist David Dargahi on lead vocals) are faultless in their precision, but it’s the wonderful feeling you get listening to them that is the most important thing.

In response to joyous numbers like ‘123 Stop’, girls in short dresses fight for space atop speakers to gyrate their bodies to the music, obviously buoyed by lead singer Daniel Balk’s declaration of approval to ‘the good amount of pretty girls out there’ in the club. But it’s not just the girls who are going manic over the Postelles: guys shout various phrases of approval, most of which are probably unsuitable for publishing on an internationally read music Web site. Balk also comments with a wide smile that the Washington crowd is ‘acting like we’re in New York City right now. Drunk, loud, and fucking rock ‘n’ roll!’

The hand-scrawled set list makes it look like ‘Can’t Stand Still’, with its killer bass line courtesy of John Speyer, is the last song they will play, but they return in fine form to play two songs for an encore. The first, practically demanded by a very excited punter all night, is ‘Boy’s Best Friend’, a song that Balk has admitted is about a song that he and drummer Billy Cadden dated in high school but has since come out as a lesbian. (It’s equally as provocative as Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed a Girl’, but proof you can write a song about a taboo topic without resorting to tastelessness.) The set ender, ‘Stella’, is a gem: a song that begins with lines like ‘if the sun forgets to shine / could you just deal with candlelight for two? / oh I hope that will do’ will melt any heart of stone. Catch these guys in small venues while you still can.