TCBLive's XFM Exposure nights in Manchester have become "the night" to see the hottest talent in the UK right now in Manchester and with the Noisettes they got it spot on as we witnessed a band who are fast becoming the best live act in the UK right now.

Last time they arrived in Manchester they left becoming known as the band who saw up bread on stage with guitars. Tonight there's no such Warbutons product placement but they do leave conquering heroes of alt-disco rock with a set that takes in everything from Billie Holiday to Fugazi with lashings of Gloria Gaynor as skewered on a punk kebab.

Based in London and fronted by the amazonian spitfire Shingai Shoniwa The Noisettes may be a 3 piece but there's so much going on you'd be convinced they had a whole punk ensemble firing off cylinders and shredding riffs before reigning it all back in to a lo-fi gospel track and that's just in the space of one song. Despite Shoniwa's stage presence this is far from a one lady show as guitarist Dan Smith is one of the best guitarists this country has seen in years and one that could really put Jack White to shame as master of the blues. You get the feeling that this debut album from the Noisettes is just a rehearsal for what's to come later and as time progresses this punk rock template will be expanded to incorporate the massive talents of Smith more.

At the moment perhaps the only downside is that unfamiliarity with the material, a handful of singles excepted, leaves a Noisettes show as a spectacle rather than a interactive gig where the crowd are sent into a frenzy, but like Forward Russia, another obtuse band who refuse convention you get the sense that in time this will change.

For the time being Noisettes are a mere embryonic structure of what they will be in 12 months time and if they're this good now how good will they be when they're f**king in the aeons of the Top 40 commanding the nations attention

Alex McCann
Photos: Ged Camera - www.camera1.free-online.co.uk