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The obscurely and rather lengthily-named Canadians DD/MM/YYYY present themselves as an experimental party extravaganza. In this sparsely populated Auntie Annie's, however, the party has failed to turn up.

Thrashing out a mess of math-rock and indie littered with tropical drum beats and much shouting, there's a lot going on. 听It's difficult to define as a listener what exactly you want to take from it all with the swathes of experimentalism becoming less songs, more barrages of sound, and certainly given the trend for all things lo-fi, DD/MM/YYYY's fuss and confusion can sound a couple of years outdated.

While it would be easy to brand them as mere noise-makers, on stage they're animated and lively - running around bashing drums and yelling in in what would make it a great party atmostphere. 听It's just a pity there isn't enough people to soak it up and all that energy gets lost.

It's just unfortunate that Dubliners Cap Pas Cap don't do much better. 听As purveyors of one of the mixes in the Skinny Wolves series -their latest was a lovely melange of post-punk and kraut-rock- clearly they have defined interests and influences, but without letting that substance tag along in their music.

On record you hear a different band - their track 'Mirrors' is a great example, with depth and contrasts in sound that make it seem interesting. 听 But on stage, the singer's voice can disappear shouting in all that steely, harsh guitar. 听She may smile sweetly between songs, but ultimately maintaining that icy fa茂驴陆ade is a lot of hard work and over the course of the set, wears very thin indeed.

Blank and expressionless, echoing in reverb and drowning in all the cold atmosphere they can muster, Cap Pas Cap ring hollow in a triumph of style over substance. 听 On the eve of their album launch in Dublin, you hope that they can do more to bring it together.

Aoife Mc Keown