65 Days of Static at the Plug, Sheffield, 7th May

When looking over the audience tonight there is a shifty unease in the air. Some members are throwing their heads around in the fashion that their main aim is to dismantle it from their bodies, others just simply stand still, staring at the stage, then there's the middlemen who stand halfway between a head bang and a shuffle, who are not quite sure what to do with their arms. As you can imagine it's quite an unusual scene. This however, is the norm for an audience at a 65 Days of Static gig.

Recently described as the only band to make Muse sound comparatively restrained, they don't necessarily permeate the room with their loud brash rhythms, but instead absorbs it, churning it back in an epic sound disguised as five lads from Sheffield.

Tonight the Plug is tightly packed with an audience as varied as the dancing, yet it is such a surprise to see just how many people have turned out to see 65 Days. After all it has been a long time coming for the instrumental post-rock group. Now on their third album, the band have slowly morphed into the ideal representation of their music. The boy band looks have been replaced by scraggy long hair, as now backed by full visuals, the band's impact and stage presence is immense.

Storming through a set mainly focusing on One Time for All Time and nods towards Destruction of Small Ideas, the band are finally in the position where fans cheer as they recognise the delicate piano introductions. Before the band launch into a stupendous fusion of guitars and hard hitting rhythms, a few words are exchanged between songs. But the band leave the music to do the talking, as each member manically moves silhouetted against the visual screen.

As another piano solo begins, 'Radio Protector' is the most effecting song of the night, as the band combines their music with clips from Greenpeace and Amnesty International. For most bands a tour diary would include hilarious photos, mischievous antics and drunken ramblings, however in an idea first used last October, 65 Days instead tell the story of the Carbon Dioxide used on their 16 date tour. As the audience stands motionless reading the global impact of a small music tour the thought of Madonna prancing around, miming to a few tracks for the same cause makes your stomach turn.

Then as the band's biggest commercial hit 'Retreat! Retreat!' makes an appearance, the crowd are no longer uncomfortable. As the fourteen year olds have just about managed to re-adjust their hearing, (or what's left of it) the band also relax; although the impending doom of 65 Days music was never meant to be comforting.

So it appears the hometown crowd have finally found some nurturing in 65 Days of Static. Maybe it's the sudden flux of Arctic Monkeys indie bands that have caused music fans to look elsewhere for something different, or maybe its because the band are receiving the largest airplay since their debut. Either way as you stand, half bopping, half moshing to the riotous sounds before you, never have the words "We will not retreat! This band is unstoppable!" described a band any better.

65 Days of Static- Radio Protector. mp3 (taken from One Time for All Time)

65 Days of Static- I Swallowed Hard, Like I Understood. mp3 (taken from The Fall of Math)