At first glance The Orwells’ Mario Cuomo is your typical Robert Plant “golden god” type frontman, with long blond tresses and a howling vocal.

But looking closer when he took to The Haunt stage for the opening NME Radar show, there was something not quite right in his eyes – perhaps contributing to his manic energy.

During the set he threw himself around like a spinning top, climbed the speaker stack, rolled around on the floor and even ended up in the audience for his final song.

Backing him was some guitar-driven US garage power pop, played on two guitars, bass and drums at an incredible volume by a band happy to throw themselves around the stage to an equal amount.

The lyrics may have been simple but they were anthems to being young, snotty and full of life in 21st-century America – “If you want to help the children, let them have some fun”, for example, on set highlight Who Needs You?

By the end of the set the words had turned into strangled yelps, with only a mid-set broken guitar string capable of slowing the Illinois five-piece down.