Quite how some bands manage to take their influences and give them up-to-date flourish, while others are merely half-decent pastiches is hard to fathom.
On the evidence of this enthralling performance, though, Berlin-based trio Ballet School clearly fall into the former.
While the silky synths, a flurry of competing beats, chiming guitars and singer Rosie Blair's spectacular vocal range owed a sizeable debt to 1980s pop classics, there was shimmering 21st century cut and thrust to their live show.
Blair was the star attraction, cutting a striking figure with flailing arms and stop-start moves throughout the glam-fuelled corkers Heartbeat Overdrive and Pale Saint, both of which would surely have soundtracked a cult teen movie if they’d been written 30 years ago.
They were not ashamed of their influences either, as a frankly stunning and pulsating version of Madonna’s Justify My Love testified.
Cleverly they seemed to understand that too many doses of saccharine pop can cause queasiness, so they interspersed them with a series of more sparse, and understated soundscapes - in the vein of School of Seven Bells - where Blair's wild vocals dominated.
Both they and the enthusiastic crowd seemed to prefer it when they put their feet to the floor.
"We've been practising our rock and roll endings," confessed Blair as the euphoric Cherish clattered to a close.
Like most of this set, they had it down to a fine art.
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