Tuesday 20/03/07 !!!, The Longcut @ The Ritz, Manchester

The Ritz, like all the best venues, wasn’t always how it is now. This bouncing floor beneath us once took the weight of ballroom dancers as they waltzed across its polished surface. Much has changed since then - not least the dancing. How odd it is then that tonight, eight slightly ill-matched Americans are able to make the Ritz do what it was born to do – move.

Local club night/fanzine/label High Voltage has taken control of the Whitworth Street venue tonight and filled it with its children. We miss out on The Whip and The KBC, but arrive in time to see The Longcut who deliver a slightly neutered set.

Having seen the adopted Mancunians make the stage their own on their headline tours, it feels like they drop a gear in this support slot and don’t really add to what we already know about them. While ‘Vitamin C’ and ‘Transition’ remain as potent a dose of New Order-indebted indie dance as when they first landed, Stuart’s one-note delivery starts to wear and a cover of Candi Statton’s ‘You Got The Love’ seems a little desperate.

Then again, it must be almost as hard to play before !!! (pronounced… ah **** it, you all know by now) these days as it is to follow them. With third album ‘Myth Takes’ currently working its way into people's heads and last year’s live dates with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers throwing them in at the deep end of stadium rock, !!! are shit, scheisse and merde-hot at the moment.