Band(ism), The Dangerous Aces, Norman Clayture, The Suns of Potto @ Life Café, Manchester (From This Is Lancashire)

Band(ism), The Dangerous Aces, Norman Clayture, The Suns of Potto @ Life Café, Manchester

Nothing But Good has attracted some fine acts for its weekly Wednesday night melee. Last night went further, into the realms of an art-music happening'.

Band(ism) head dandy Robin Nature-Bold

Art-rock headliners Band(ism) were filming a video for their upcoming single, Peacock Mk2, and the promotional literature had encouraged attendees to wear white clothes, hats and sunglasses.

First up were The Suns of Potto, self-styled "sculptors of air molecules", whose bass-heavy set was both downtempo and disconcertingly off-key.

Confusing at first, their music gradually enveloped the seated Life Caf audience into their strange world.

Next was the infamous Norman Clayture, a balladeer who performs wearing nothing but his boots and a giant pair of carved wooden pants.

He sang about love, he sang about loss, he sang about deviant sexual antics that cannot be repeated in daylight hours!

The Dangerous Aces performed after a short DJ intermission, and they certainly woke everyone up!

If punk and rock n' roll had married and brought their children up on a diet of caffeine tablets, lager and biker movies, The Dangerous Aces might well be the kicking, shouting, side-burned result.

They left the crowd baying for an encore.

The evening culminated with image-obsessed Band(ism). Clad in white suits, complete with creepy blank masks and sunglasses, they instantly swept aside any notions that their music wouldn't match up to their appearance.

Band(ism) lurched like eclectic netherworld dandies from funk and folk to pop and punk, beguiling the audience with lively, surreal and absurd tunes.

By now the floor had filled with appropriately-dressed fans, drawn by the promise of brief fame as an extra in the crowd shots for the music video.

The finely-tuned image and act kept everyone enraptured.

Lead singer Robin Nature-Bold stood atop a chair for the bulk of their set, swinging his mop about and addressing the audience in appreciative and affected tones.

And as if their show wasn't enough, The Suns of Potto's singer created a monotone painting of the band on a canvas at the side of the stage.

Blissful proof that performance isn't dead.