Not even a rowdy bunch of football fans could ruin this gig. Sublime stuff from a band that deserve the same level of attention and praise as the band they’re often compared to, Hot Chip. I also compare them. Couldn’t help it.

Date: January 25, 2014

Venue: Bodega

With their faces lit as if they’re about to impart camp fire ghost stories, dressed head-to-toe in black to create a crepuscular mystique, Outfit are the best thing to come out of Liverpool since, well, you finish that sentence off.

They are the city’s silky new purveyors of electro-funk-indie-pop and demonstrate this right from the outset with House on Fire, its pulsing heart beating against intertwining vocal harmonies and a solid electro stomp.

They’ve been compared to Hot Chip, and that comparison is palpable, especially on Thank God I’m Dreaming, largely because it’s the song Hot Chip wish they had written, while Two Islands’s Afro-beat wanderings and chirping guitar riff is New Order and Hot Chip squabbling over a new direction.

Their marriage of synth-heavy electro and groove-sodden rhythms is intoxicating, and impossible not to move to.

But when they slow it down, it’s almost like a New Romantic movement for a new generation; like Spandeau Ballad given a 2014 gloss and a heavy dose of the zeitgeist. Not even a small gathering of ticketless, merry and loud Walsall fans (their side had just beaten Notts County 5-1) could ruin the mood, although lead singer Andrew Hunt, by this time, seemed thoroughly pissed off by their distracting rambunctious chatter.

But alas, his chagrin wasn’t shared by his crowd whose attention was transfixed on a mesmeric show.

They ended with Elephant Days, a song which contains all the afore-mentioned ingredients, providing the perfect end to triumphant set. 

With an unrivalled vibrancy, and a dark and brooding pop-noir on the prowl, Outfit are a band who are going to fit perfectly into many ‘Band of the Year’ lists.