Few bands can pull a cooler crowd than New York’s Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Gorgeous girls with high-maintenance hair and boys who buy vintage clothes jostled for space on the opening date of the trendy trio’s UK tour.

Spawned in the New Wave slipstream of the Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs sold more than half a million copies of their debut album, Fever to Tell, from 2003, but are probably more famous for their style than their songs. Or rather, the edgy appearance of their fabulous frontwoman Karen O and her penchant for performance art. Despite toning down their brash, punky sound on the recent second album Show Your Bones, the songs still played second fiddle to their singer.

Poured into what looked like a Bacofoil prom dress snipped off mid-thigh, Ms O started the show with both her trademark black, angular bob and entire face obscured by one of those novelty tinsel wigs drunk people wear at office parties. Instead of looking silly, she was captivating, delivering lines from the Beck-like single Gold Lion as though they had crawled their way up from her gut, yelping like Siouxsie Sioux and finally emerging from her makeshift mask like a bold butterfly.

As far as fashion tips go, the wig was a miss, but as an opening salvo it was certainly memorable. The same, sadly, couldn’t be said for a lot of the songs. The drummer Brian Case pounded out muscular rhythms, and Nick Zinner played some great rock guitar, but too often someone forgot to put in a tune. On the old number Pins and a new song, Way Out, O spun around, screeched a lot and cracked her microphone lead like a whip, but it was more like performance noise than pop. Occasionally though, Yeah Yeah Yeahs hit their mark and the grinding, pulsating Phenomena — their Prodigy meets-LL Cool J moment — could well be the track to take them Top Ten.

Maps in the encore was another highlight, but even that was overshadowed by a multicoloured, diamante-covered cape. If ever a woman was too big for a band, it has to be Karen O.

Tomorrow, Glasgow Barrowlands; Sat, Manchester Academy; Sun, Birmingham Academy