“AND on the 7th day, God created soft rock,” read the T-shirts on the merchandise stand. The tongue-in-cheek statement makes it clear that The Lemon Twigs, aware of their own ridiculousness, lovingly recreate music that even during its commercial peak was never regarded as cool.

The New York outfit’s sense of the ludicrous is confirmed in the concept of their second album Go To School, a rock musical that tells the story of an adopted chimp who’s raised to think he’s human. Bit players in the narrative are Todd Rundgren and Big Star’s Jody Stephens, both of whose influence can be heard throughout.

The theatrical nature of that release is extended to their live shows, allowing multi-instrumental founders Brian and Michael D’Addario to draw on their former lives as child actors. Dressed in authentic 1970s gear — tight T-shirts, aviator shades and flares — frontman D’Addario is a hip-thrusting, scissor-kicking, pouting version of Mick Jagger auditioning for The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The outlandish, parodic showmanship would be patently ridiculous if the brothers weren’t such talented writers and musicians. Seemingly born with a plectrum in their mouths, they’re at their most concise on the sweetly melancholic These Words and I Wanna Prove To You. Both are authentically reproduced examples of classic rock, with their harmonies as rich as any found in The Beach Boys catalogue.

The breadth of their influences extends far beyond this genre. Opening track Never In My Arms, Always In My Heart has the glam-rock energy of David Essex fronting Roxy Music, If You Give Enough is cut from the same cloth as Big Star’s Radio City and the jazzy bass on Hi+Lo cuts to a spoken-word section in which Michael talks about an encounter at a gas station.

Interspersed with effortless guitar passages that last longer than Brexit negotiations, the set shows the five-piece live band have the means to be more than nostalgic revivalists. At this stage, it’s unclear whether they have the will to prioritise originality over performance.