There’s something very – dare we say it – professional about Django Django these days. The Monday prior to the announcement of the Mercury Prize, for which they were nominated, the band take to TOM’s stage with a reassurance that can only come from knowing your songs inside out. Their set-up, the outfits, everything in fact, had progressed from last year’s performance at The Hope to a much wider screen version. And thankfully that debut album’s tracks still packed a punch, with the band still joyous, not jaded, at being able to play them.

So with no new music to offer, the sell-out crowd took delivery of all of the debut, with many tracks extended and broken down to extract the most excitement from even the darkest recesses. The Djangos know all too well how to work a room nowadays, with singer Vincent Neff urging crowd clapalongs, nodding to his bandmates to drop in and out for maximum effect or whacking giant tambourines and wood blocks. Even the slower numbers like ‘Skies Over Cairo’ and ‘Firewater’ gel, pulsate and throb over and under a frankly stunning light show, which is projected on to three vast Venetian blinds.

But it was during the second half tonight, when the music was at its most jubilatory – ‘Waveforms’, ‘Default’, ‘Life’s A Beach’ – that TOM’s roof felt as if it would fly off to join Hurricane Sandy. The indie disco became a neon-soaked nightclub, arms aloft throughout, and it was truly glorious. Nearly a year on from their debut, and with the music on it percolating nicely into an ever-widening audience, Django Django know that, for now at least, there is great comfort in the familiar.

Old Market, Monday 29th October 2012
Words by Jake Kennedy