Following support from Telegram, the core of The Horrors enter the stage to applause followed moments later by cool as you like, Faris Badwan, who attracts a large cheer as he struts in to view.

The wait is over and The Horrors jump in at the deep-end with ‘Chasing Shadows’, the glitzy opening track from this year’s release Luminous. This kicks off an innovative set where the Southend shoegazers breeze through material from their previous three albums. It’s noticeable that they leave 2007's debut Strange House in the dark as they light up the Troxy with dazzling strobes and improvised instrumentals. The evolution of The Horrors since Strange House has been huge, and tonight acts as a celebration for the sound they have since mastered.

And it's loud. In a barely lit setting, the band is hidden behind a smokescreen, but Joseph Spurgeons' drums burst through the dark and are the driving force behind the evening’s highlight, ‘Sea Within A Sea.’ The track stands out as members of the crowd clamber to shoulder level to ride the wave that Tom Cowan’s synthesizers create.

With the band hid, attention is directed to the fantastic light show which is like a gothic Disneyland spectacular. Badwan’s slender silhouette, which is visible throughout, emphasises the novelty of the performance; you see him holding his microphone-stand aloft, breaking the awesome green sheet of light which covers the crowd.

During Primary Colours’ ‘Who Can Say’, it becomes clear for anyone who has seen the band at a festival that an indoor setting is essential to truly witnessing a Horrors performance. It is the lighting and the confined space which creates a wall around the crowd and the band, unifying everyone in ascending tracks which hit like a ton of bricks.

As the night draws to a close, Faris Badwan thanks the crowd for sharing the last night of their UK tour in support of Luminous, flying into sing-along single ‘I See You’ before the leaving the stage for the first time.

The band re-emerge for a deserved two song encore, with a passionate outing of their latest single, ‘So Now You Know’, before stretching Skyling’s ‘Moving Further Away’ in to a ten minute intoxicating freak-out. The track is huge and The Horrors are becoming seasoned specialists in upbeat '80s nostalgia, more so than you could ever have imagined when they first broke in '07.

Leaving into the crisp London air, with ringing ears and blurred vision, there’s no doubt that The Horrors have signed off their UK tour in style.

Static Shock Records are currently cleaning house when it comes to London hardcore gigs, hosting top notch bands from around the world on a regular basis and stoking a fire within the scene in the process. This weekend they outdid themselves with a Camden line-up headlined by the surf-drenched hardcore punk of New Jersey’s Night Birds. I’d seen them smash it a few years before in a Leeds basement and subsequently start to gain a well-deserved bit of recognition with each new tour and release, so their one UK date of the tour wasn’t going to be one to miss. Adding to the carnage, a Sheffield invasion in the form of Detergents and Dry Heaves brings some welcome Yorkshire hype – the Northern hardcore scene has always produced stellar bands, and these bands both carry that tradition on with style. Detergents open proceedings with a crunching UK82 style raucousness that has people moving from the start. No turning up late for this one, the line-up is strong throughout and the early throng shows that people have realised this. No frills punk music that reeks of spit and cider is exactly what’s needed to kick off proceedings nicely, as is the cold beer which loosens my concrete-battered muscles. Dry Heaves have been honing their biting hardcore under the radar for a few years now and, knowing they can draw a crowd in Yorkshire, it’s great to see the same response in London. Everyone is going off, beer is spilling and the band are ripping through songs from their back catalogue interspersed with a good few new tracks which already sound impressively tight, roll on the new record!

Unfortunately due to a pressing need for non-alcoholic sustenance we miss Atomic Suplex and their garage hardcore madness, which I can only imagine to be next level in such a small space, but make it back just as Night Birds thrash into the first chords of full speed surf instrumental ‘Escape from New York’. From then on things are complete chaos; with no time for niceties such as between song banter they blast through what feels like half of their back catalogue like it was one continuous raging beast. Everything is speeded up a notch compared to studio recordings and the result is one of the most intense punk shows your likely to see, an endurance test that both band and audience are very much ready for. While their recordings are incredible, this is a band that needs to be seen live to appreciate in full force. Singer Brian Gorsegner gurns and twitches like a caged lunatic in a Victorian asylum, while the band up the aggression levels as far as they can take them and still maintain that musical tightness which makes each song stand out. The mic spends as much time in the hands of audience as band members, with songs like ‘Modern Morons’, ‘Born to Die in Suburbia’, ‘Prognosis Negative’ ‘Killer Waves’ and ‘Born of Man and Woman’ clearly imprinted on the brains of every person down the front. Nothing quite tops off a solid day’s skateboarding like a good hardcore show - tiredness and aches washed away in a tide of beer and loud, fast music - and this was as good as it gets. Props all round to promoter, bands and crowd, a solid contender for gig of the year!