Canadian band Thee Silver Mount Zion Orchestra performed a relentless and invasive display of politically charged post-rock.

Opening act Elizabeth Walling and her band, A Scandal in Bohemia, set a suitably disorientating scene with tracks which sounded like someone searching for a station on a Thirties radio. Their jazz-tinged songs faded into each other and built gently before collapsing in a swirl of brass, scratchy samples, manic drumming and looped vocals.

Thee Silver Mount Zion Orchestra took the stage soon afterwards, and when all seven members of the band were ready, lead singer and guitarist Efrim made an announcement. "I hope you enjoy the show, this first song's about entire communities being buried in mud."

As this new track reached a climax of strings, drums and juggernaut-sized guitar, Efrim feverishly repeated, "there's ravens in the country", and the tone was set to a dark hue.

The second song, an elegant then terrifying Mountains Made of Steam, continued the apocalyptic mood and was dedicated to the parts of Brighton's "cottage tourist industry that manufactures pictures of a ruined pier".

The band continued to be as provocative between songs as they were in them and, during a lull in proceedings, caused by a blown amp, they launched a tirade against new liberal politics and the cowardice of the North American Press. This was followed by the colossal One Million Dead to Make This Son and as the music faded, the band members sang the title over and over again before leaving a devoted crowd in darkness.

Another amp blew during the encore and one violinist lamented the demise of her instrument.

Efrim surveyed the onstage damage and wistfully declared, "everything is broken up on stage", before beginning another song.

It was hard to think of a more apt end, for, long after the tinnitus had relented, the feeling grew that maybe everything is broken down here, too.