The Mules' Pick Your Own gigs are essentially a bunch of bands playing in the corner of a King's Cross bar, but there is something endearingly out of the ordinary about tonight. The final show of the Mules' week-long residency here falls on a bank holiday, allowing perhaps for higher spirits than usual, but credit is also due to the band for putting together a terrific bill.

Dev Hynes' Lightspeed Champion proves a choppy, acoustic-punky pleasure, and Son of Dave's one-man masterclass in mouth organ beat-boxing is a stomping, hollering joy. Guillemots' Fyfe Dangerfield shows a different and far more interesting musical incarnation with the Gannets, who whip up a rumbling cacophony, something like a noisier, freer Acoustic Ladyland.

It is nearly midnight when the hosts appear. With singing drummer Ed Seed front and centre, the Mules burst into their hectic cabaret-punk racket, sounding far more convincing live than on record. It is an odd mix, with shades of post-punk jerkiness (more Adam and the Ants than Gang of Four, mind), Jerry Dammers ska, and an overarching vaudevillian slant. The result is a carnival of spooky funk, off-time twangs and histrionic caterwauling, begging comparison to a Tim Burton soundtrack.

By the end, the band are reaching a series of increasingly frenzied peaks, and the front few rows are comprehensively under their rambunctious spell. It is all tremendous fun; such superbly honed, off-kilter chops, and that laudable DIY spirit, could put the Mules in a bizarre little league of their own.

· At Proud Galleries, London on September 1. Box office: 020-7482 3867. Then touring