It’s almost a year to the day since I first saw Luxury Stranger, and in the half-a-dozen or so times I’ve seen them since then, they’ve consistently failed to disappoint.

Tonight’s gig is as headliners as opposed to the last Nottingham show when they played support to O Children, and were confined to a short set. This feels like retribution.
The boys take to the stage with a minimum of fuss, singer Simon York looking like a maniac mime artist in his white face paint. Picking up their instruments and kicking off with a fantastic “Empty Men” Luxury Stranger play with an immediacy I  haven’t seen before, as if their lives depended on it. They rip into “Making Becci Laugh” immediately, the crowd still clapping and cheering the first number. The song features a sky-scorching guitar hook and a bass line deeper than the ocean. Big things ahead, methinks.

Luxury Stranger have already performed with enough intensity to last all night, but the next song, “Paradise Untouched” is an emotional hand grenade. The white make-up makes Simon look like a character in an old 1930s horror film as he sings. Fly away to a paradise untouched, indeed. Scary and beautiful.

“Dirt” pummels us like an irate prize fighter, “If You Love Me” delivers the knock out blow. Luxury Stranger are rapidly becoming my favourite new band.
“On+On&OnandOn” is brilliant, “You’ll never take my life, you’ll never take my dream” sings Simon with conviction, stalking the stage and stamping his feet. He is as caught up in the moment as the audience. “Hello”, he says, “we’re Luxury Stranger. Sorry we’ve haven’t spoken much” before introducing new single “Precious For Ever More”, a slice of torment cake served with a garnish of regret.

“Frozen” comes on like a lover with a grievance and ends with drummer Paul Sycamore asking support act The Amber Herd if he could borrow a kick pedal, he was playing that hard. They oblige. Technical problems are virtually mandatory at goth gigs, so the set is cut short. “Korruption”, with replacement pedal in place, rounds off the evening.
“Take me, I’m yours to keep…..but only for tonight”  Simon sings, make-up now all over the place. You could see his grinning face from the back of the room.

A brilliant show.