Saturday’s Incarnate welcomed gothic synth-pop cyberpunks Deviant UK to its church of unholy trinity; a blend of dark music, a dark audience and beer. As you would expect, the evening began and finished with a grand selection of fine tunes from three outstanding guest DJs and another sexually resplendent display from burlesque vixens Mamas Kittens who warmed things up. The beautifully dark and sensual Luna X turned the temperature to ‘hot, hot, hot’, and sent pulses racing with her erotically charged moments of seduction to lead nicely into the main event.

Deviant UK have previously supported Project Pitchfork and Rotersand on tour and with two top selling album releases to their credit, they have an ample arsenal of dark ebm, cyber-gothic offerings to delight their audience, and delight they did.

Showcasing well-known classics such as ‘Access Denied’ and ‘Raptured Saints’ together with their debut single ‘Wreckhead’ and six of their very best songs from the new album 'Very Bad Things', Deviant topped things up with two brilliant covers. The first, Scooter’s classic ‘One’, is apparently not a favourite with the band’s new master of electronics and the second, Gary Numan’s timeless ‘Cars’ had everyone dancing or at least moving in some way.

Deviant’s charismatic frontman Jay Smith, engaged full-on with his audience; he regularly left the stage to mingle, often facing his chosen subject, one to one, glaring psychotically with a devilishly piecing look as his frozen, ice-coated vocals penetrated even the darkest of souls.

Although the venue hosted a much smaller crowd than usually found at a Deviant show, it was very much an intimate affair, and yet Jay was clearly enjoying playing his music to those who had come to be entertained. As with many small venues, technical hiccups and the usual gremlins appear causing havoc, mischief and mayhem when and wherever, but all this aside, the evening provided some of those rare moments where the audience and artist become so entwined, everyone becomes part of the show.

You can catch Deviant UK at DV8 on Friday 22^nd July.

Other UK shows;

Talking Heads, Southampton – 27^th July 2011

Purple Turtle, Camden – 28^th July 2011

Eddies rock Club, Birmingham – 29^th July 2011

Manchester Academy, Manchester – 30^th July 2011

There are also some European dates planned for later in the year

http://www.myspace.com/deviantuk