India's traditional celebration of a good harvest, to the sound of the dhol drum, is based around lyrics about "getting drunk, being very merry and generally socialising".

All three themes were enthusiastically pursued when the Dhol Foundation played this rare club date on Saturday night.

Building the audience up with a knowing mastery honed by years of festival experience, their beats shook the dancefloor with a power which would have left the place none the wiser had an earthquake simultaneously rippled through the North Laines.

The sheer joy and passion with which these Punjabi musclemen hammer their goat hide-clad instruments is a life-affirming spectacle, the awesome energy of the group resonating umbilically through the audience.

Even at their most complex, they have too much fun doing what they love to be anything less than infectiously charming.

Leader Johnny Kalsi, formerly of Afro Celt Sound System and Asian Dub Foundation, orchestrated both clan and crowd, giving punters the minimal encouragement they needed to hoist their palms aloft.

Their folk songs often began with simple Afro beats before moving into more detailed Celtic and bhangra playfulness and erraticism.

When the rotating number of drummers were showcased individually, the possibilities of a man with a drum became even more staggering, the beat per minute count edging ever-nearer to record-breaking. Each member seemed liable to get something even more extraordinary out of their drum, from beguiling speed to cataclysmic force.

At the end, the troupe froze as one in motion to euphoric approval, as if some sort of rare exhibit. The adrenaline saturating the air must have left Kalsi tempted to organise gigs under a roof more often.

They came with grins the size of Bombay and left the crowd captivated - anyone with preconceived notions of what can be achieved with a drum risks being blown away by the Dhol Foundation.