Last night, the sublime, goth-punk Alkaline Trio returned to the stage at Manchester Academy and proceeded to blow the crowd away with an awesome set which, perhaps surprisingly, focused on the “classics” rather than their more recent material.

Opening with a storming rendtion of “This Addiction” the title track to their latest album, followed by a blistering rendition of “Armagedon” the crowd was whipped into a frenzy which rarely let up throughout the 21 songs.

“Dead on the Floor”, “Off the Map” and “Fine” joined “This Addiction” in a setlist that completely ignored the bands other most recent album “Agony & Irony” (though to be fair they had toured that album last year) and only feature one song off “Crimson” (the sublime “Sadie”).

This was a bit of a shame as I had been looking forward to hearing “Mercy Me” and “Calling All Skeletons” however the inclusion of “Another Innocent Girl”, “Mr Chainsaw”, “This Could Be Love” and “My Friend Peter” alongside “Private Eye” and “Emma” more than made up for their absence.

The encore was perhaps the highlight of the evening as Skibba took up the drums, Dan switched to guitar and drummer Derek took up bass for rendtions of “Fine” and The Misfits’ “Angelfuck” before closing (unsurpisingly) with “Radio”.

After missing the band on their UK tour last year, it was great to finally see them again some 5 years after seeing them last. Fingers crossed they’ll be back again next year, though if you can’t wait that long, they are headling next weekends Slamdunk festival…

“Dan Le Sac, Scroobius Pip! Fixing hip-hop as best we can!” A bold statement or genuine belief?

Last night the bearded saviour of UK hip-hop took the stage at The Cockpit in Leeds and put on a blistering performance that puts many, more popular artists to shame.

The bunker-like “pit” was indeed the perfect venue with around 500 fans crammed in to see the duo performing tracks from both their debut album “Angles” and latest release “The Logic of Chance”. The room erupted to opening track “The Beat That My Heart Skipped” and barely let up until the duo bowed out with the “pre-planned” encore of “Letter from God”.

The ‘Pip’s crowd interaction is second to none with witty banter and (in jest) crowd provaction – “I support Millwall” which was met with a 500 strong chant of York-shire!

Whilst for me the strength of the duo’s music lies within Scroobius’s lyrical observations and genuinely thought provoking lyrics on tracks such as “Angles” (performed complete with costume changes!) and the beautifully haunting “The Magicians Assistant” the contribution of Dan Le Sac should not be overlooked.

The backing tracks, which whilst good on an i-pod or stereo sound INCREDIBLE live. You not only hear the beats put you feel them adding a completely new experience to each track.

Highlights of the evening included storming renditions of “Snob” (surely the next single), “Back From Hell”, “The Beat” and “Stake A Claim” (before which Scroobius declared he wanted to be the first president of the UK – I’d vote for him!) and “Thou Shalt Always Kill”.

Of the two support bands B. Dolan was the highlight with a mix of comedy, hip-hop and daring do (he attempted to jump over a prone audience member!) that was an excellent precursor to the evening’s headliners.

The first support band, Sound of Rum, opened with an interesting poem before being blighted by a poor sound set-up to the lead singers mic. I’m intrigued to see what they sound like on CD so will be checking them out in the not too distant future.

All in all it was a fantastic night out and already a genuine contender for gig of the year. If you’ve not heard anything by Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, or you’re disillusioned by the state of UK hip-hop, I urge you to follow the links below and purchase both “Angles” and “The Logic of Chance”. You will not be disappointed!