CATCHING up with Petrol Girls to check whether their sound really is the zeitgeist of the new wave comes on a night when headliners War on Women, wildcats Menstrual Cramps and new band on the block Peach Club pump up the power too.

Blowing up a storm to feel and tell it as it is and let nobody off the hook — not even themselves — Petrol Girls live up to their incendiary name and do exactly what it says on the tin.

Fronted by Ren Aldridge, they offer up a heavy-duty punk-metal trip, gloriously littered with more than a dose of an infectious spite which belies their unassuming appearance.

The insatiable outpouring of tight and complex signature time changes grab the attention from Joe York on guitar, Zock Astpai on drums and Liepa Kuraite on bass and they’re launched into another place by the outer-stratospheric ecstasies and unearthly forces unleashed by Aldridge’s vocals.

Passionate and poignant, the best of the lyrics are fixated on the call to destroy insipid patriarchies and ruin cosy mindsets on the brilliant No Love for a Nation and Naive, while the appeal to stand in solidarity and dignity against binary sexual and political dominance inspires on Touch Me Again (and I Will Fucking Kill You), Weather Warning, Big Mouth and Tangle of Lives.

Throughout the set a palpable force of insurrection and delight surrounds Aldridge and the band which sweeps a packed and violent — in the nicest possible way — audience along.