Friday 04/02/05 The Mountaineers @ Zanzibar, Liverpool

The Mountaineers - as a half electronic, half guitar three-piece playing cleverly-crafted pop - can be an awkward, if original, live proposition. However, when the band are as pumped up as they are tonight, it all clicks into place and makes perfect, euphoric sense.

Singer Alex Germains’ introduced himself by announcing “I’m feeling Arnie Schwarzeneggery tonight”, and his friskiness (“This is a love song, so if you’ve got someone special standing next to you, you might want to give her a little kiss.... feel her tits....”) proves infectious.

Whilst he thrashes his guitar around and rips into his vocals with gusto, keyboardist Ceri James ("who has a PhD in Parapsychology") adds soulful flourishes to his stellar sound, providing a constantly inventive balance to Alex’s impassioned performance.

The band are clearly enjoying themselves, hitting top form early on with ‘UK Theatre’, a highlight of their 2003 album 'Messy Century'. Such joyful momentum is maintained throughout the rest of the set, which features their upcoming "comeback" EP, ‘Motions of Interplanetary Dust’ (Alex earnestly explains that was the title of Brian May’s PhD), before highlighting their more simplified, stripped down sound by concluding with a storming cover of Joy Division’s 'Isolation' (although they still squeeze in a cunning key change).

With a UK tour and new record coming up, The Mountaineers have the pedigree to scale the heights once again - especially if they continue to evoke the spirit of muscly, monotone Austrians.