Northumbria University, Newcastle

She may look like the cute bookish wallflower from next door, but Giant Drag's Annie Hardy has the kind of mouth you wouldn't kiss your mother with. "I'm on my period," she drawls, by way of introduction, to a largely oblivious teenage crowd here for headliners The Cribs. Like "Hello, Newcastle" would've hurt.

Giant Drag may currently be better known for flirting with controversy - their most talked about song is the confrontationally titled 'You Fuck Like My Dad' - but the music is a gloriously hellish racket that's part My Bloody Valentine slo-core, part shimmering West Coast pop. Comprising Annie Hardy (guitar, vocals) and Micah Calabrese (drums), the LA duo, whose debut album Hearts And Unicorns has just been released in the UK, make an odd couple. Micah sports standard indie fare - skinny jeans and T-shirt - but is practically mute, while Annie's decked out in big-cardiganed librarian chic that belies a particularly caustic wit.

When she introduces "a song about my 40-year-old boyfriend," it's not until halfway through a hauntingly affecting lament to doomed relationships that the nagging familiarity finally clicks. Strip away the layer of sonic grime and Annie's nasal banshee wail and underneath it's a deceptively brooding reading of hideous, car-flogging AOR standard "Wicked Game."

To the uninitiated they may sound like a rag-week student prank, with their desire to shock and the comedy cover versions, but on the melodic sneering drone-pop likes of closer 'Kevin Is Gay' it's clear Giant Drag are far from a one-joke band. Period.