An unusual sight greeted the audience at the Brudenell: a screen set up in front of the stage. I think this was a first for me, a visible barrier that would prevent you from seeing the support band, Honesty. The screen was very much part of the show, almost the lead, as vivid in-your-face projections accompanied beats produced by the Leeds collective. You could make out shapes but could not clearly identify any of the members, with the intended result that you were very much enveloped by the audiovisual experience. Vocal duties were switched and contrasted in styles over beats and electronica, which reminded me very much of some of Burial’s taut soundscapes. It was an unusual but beguiling opening.

The next surprise was the speed at which headliners Protomartyr got ready. A fifteen-minute turnaround which felt like some sort of record and was so simple you wonder why other bands don’t do this. Guitar players brought out their effect pedal boards and plugged them in, played a couple of chords, did a quick test of the mic and were ready to go. I’d missed the Detroit band last time they came through Leeds, so I was looking forward to seeing them reprise their 2015 album, The Agent Intellect, in full. 

'Never judge a book by the cover' is the old adage. Lead singer Joe Casey wandered out onto the stage for all the world looking like a small-town tax adviser about to sing some karaoke at a work party. He then snarled into life, prowling the stage like a Midwestern Mark E. Smith, with a steely gaze so piercing you were afraid to catch his eye in case he offered you outside. This intensity was backed by the muscularity of the band, with the girder-like strength of the rhythm section providing the perfect canvas for the chopping angular guitar. This is not the Detroit sound of Motown but of an industrial, cold, tough city that produced MC5 and The Stooges, with the result being a tight post-punk experimental rock band.

Casey’s lyrics are free-form intelligent constructions that live; on tracks like Hermit, they take on a distinctly menacing intensity that is lapped up by the sold-out crowd. I’m not always sure about the “Let’s play an album all the way through” approach to gigs, but this definitely worked. The album is brilliant, and it was taken to another level played live, allowing the crowd to really absorb and react to it, knowing exactly which favourite was coming next. After a brief break the band returned to play a further collection of favourites before promising to return to repeat it all the next day, which I wish I had a ticket for. As it was, I was left impressed by Protomartyr, a tight band that delivers muscular, angular intensity.