We wait some time for the arrival of Blood Red Shoes on stage. The drama and anticipation is built by the delay and, with the testing of the stage effects and the constant rumble of the backing track, quite an atmosphere is created. We half expect the Brighton-based duo to be lowered onto the stage through smoke and mirrors. But as it happens, when the time eventually comes, they just walk on quietly, look at each other, and go straight into ‘You Bring Me Down’.

These two small, pretty things barely fill the stage, cowering and juddering at either end. Their singing voices are so slight, but filled with the determination and defiance of those who’ve seen too much too soon, but keep on running and, with enough frantic playing of taut drums and nervous, rough guitar, they amplify their presence just enough to make it felt in a venue. Their sound burns slow, but with immense heat, and when it’s good, it’s captivating.

When they do actually speak, it is so ridiculously quiet that you can only half believe that it's the same two people that have just been making such a racket. But it is this mixture of a strange vulnerability and the hard, metallic skins that they generate with their music that makes them what they are, and it’s brilliantly alluring.

They play with a manic urgency, as if trying to maintain their cool as they are overwhelmed by the reality of things; as if their music is a self-defence action against the corruption of the wider world, a way to maintain innocence in the face of it. But this also means that further experience may wilt them, and who knows then if they will have the depth to grow, especially when their lyrics are, at best, naïve.

As they end on ‘ADHD’ we still shake to their dynamic power, but the question is will they survive bigger, scarier black boxes? Will these fragile animals with sharp spines lose their teeth or their innocence?