Monday 14/04/08 Pete And The Pirates, Let's Wrestle @ Ruby Lounge, Manchester

First of all let’s get one thing straight, Let’s Wrestle look completely non-plussed as they launch into their set tonight. Two songs in and four chords later we realise that the reason is they are. Four songs in and five chords later we’ve found our new favourite band.

Sure, Let’s Wrestle may not look like "musicians". You know the type, like to talk pentatonics and about they’re "craft," but if shambolic beauty is their ethos then we salute them. Set opener ‘I Wont Lie To You’ transforms Wesley into a skint Casablancas, "the duvet’s on fire, and so is your hair," he deadpans, no hint of a smile on his face but a large one on ours. In an all too short thirty minutes Let’s Wrestle manage to combine tales of love and the military in ‘tanks;’ A touch of the surreal in ‘Song For Man With Pica Syndrome,’ in which our 'man’ has a desire for strangely inedible items and, of course, Pro wrestling in  set closer, appropriately titled, ‘Lets Wrestle.’

At one point Let's Wrestle decide to do that thing they’ve seen and have a bit of banter with the crowd, thirty seconds later they’ve intimated to a girl, very much sans baby, that she’s pregnant. "We’ve got ourselves in a right ****ing pickle here," says bassist Mike, and we can’t decide if he’s talking about that question or just the fact they’re up on stage holding instruments in front of an audience. We may have just discovered a new self-depreciating wit for the disillusioned now Eddie Argos has gone all multinational and left us in the lurch. Let’s Wrestle aren’t polished that’s for sure, but we always liked it a little rough.

Pete and the Pirates are a definite Yin to Let’s Wrestle’s Yang. ‘I’ll Love’ opens proceedings with more glimmering pop polish than that wiry guy in the Mr. Muscle ads (was that Mr. Muscle? there’s irony for you) who, coincidentally, looks like he’s playing lead tonight. ‘Bright Lights’ harmonies turn P&TP into Hot Chip if Santa had arrived with telecasters instead of ZX spectrums. ‘Eyes Like Tar’ does the same, mellow vocals descending into a flood of tense rhythm and disjointed progression that propels the crowd into hypnotic head movements impossible to resist, The Ruby Lounge becoming a dreamlike Churchill advert punctuated by a resounding ‘oh yes’ as each song draws to a close. ‘Mr Understanding’ stomps along with a jovial indifference, a release that may lead to bigger things, but ultimately P&TP offer more if you look closer.

Though they’ve a moniker so bad it’s almost unutterable, P&TP manage to distance themselves from over-rehearsed TopShop indie and deliver a set of angular riffs that, though doff their caps to previous Brit heavyweights for sure, display enough individuality and off kilter melody to leave our toes tapping well into the night.