Before the Young Knives even walked on stage, this was a result. Less than a year ago the Ashby de la Zouch trio were playing nearby bars that could fit fourfold into tonight’s venue. Though relentless touring might account for some of their increased popularity, other factors can’t be underestimated. The emotional setting at which their music is pitched — rage overlapping into existential despair — seems especially apt for the times. If they were a character in a sitcom, they would be Tim from The Office.

Indeed, dressed in their customary Burton-style shirts and ties, the front man Henry Dartnall and his bassist brother the House of Lords (so named, says Dartnall, “because he has a habit of vetoing my best ideas”) looked as if they had just raced here from clerical jobs in the City. It didn’t take long for the euphoria of seeing a sell-out crowd to give way to the malignant nihilism of Part Timer, Dartnall and his brother intoning “Everything stays the same” as the song hurtled to a climax.

The release of the group’s debut album, Voices Of Animals & Men, prompted comparisons with two great British post-punk institutions, Gang of Four and the Fall. Both bands may have been influences, but for sibling chemistry and for Dartnall’s ability to mine pop gold from unorthodox places, the spectre of the Kinks — especially their 1969 suburban suite Arthur — loomed over vignettes such as Dialling Darling and Weekends and Bleak Days. As the House of Lords stepped up for a rare vocal turn on the new single The Decision, a section of the audience took no little joy in chanting his name. As older brothers are wont to do, Dartnall tried to divert the cries into “He’s a t***”.

Any worries that the front man might have spent his reserves of spleen in advance of the encore proved unwarranted. Any song that begins “Who are these people?/ They are too stupid to be your real parents” has to have something going for it. Even so, She’s Attracted To scaled new peaks of disturbing brilliance. As a bug-eyed Dartnall abandoned his guitar and screamed the line “You were screaming at your Mum and I was punching your Dad” 20-odd times, a strange irony set in. You felt proud of a country that could have done this to someone.

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