"We're The Strange Death of Liberal England and we like playing in Brighton." This was mumbled by frontman Adam Woolway at some point during their set and turned out to be all the words TSDOLE had for their audience at the Freebutt.

By all accounts this was a generous offering, too - elsewhere it seems their mouths have been opened solely for singing.

So, they've decided to let their music do the talking at their gigs. Well, not exactly. The most notable exception to that idea was three hand-painted placards they had readied.

The first, for when they took the stage, proclaimed the name of the band. The second: "We Are Bandini" (a song lyric). The third, and most annoying: "Now is the start of nihilism".

I don't imagine these are a unique feature bestowed upon Brighton. I suspect they've been held aloft in many parts of the country.

It's not necessarily pretentious not to talk, but the novelty of the idea, and especially of the signs, will wear very thin. Not to mention some very contrived-looking, hammed-up theatricality which was fully embarrassing at times.

The music was, in part, quite good. At their best they showed off some really momentous post-rock that approached the brilliance of Arcade Fire or Godspeed You! Back Emperor. Good Old Fashioned War and single A Day Another Day were the two clear highlights of the set.

Unfortunately there were only flashes of great music, and those were forced to contend with novelties and distractions and, in Adam Woolway, a voice so idiosyncratic, laboured and irritating, it threatened to spoil the lot.

TSDOLE definitely have the potential to produce good records, but they might have to take themselves ever so slightly less seriously first.