Dubbed the "Glaswegian Scissor Sisters", El Presidente look so curiously matched they could have met while speed dating. Bassist Thomas McNiece could be brother of Guns N' Roses Slash. Keyboard player Laura Marks has the poise-meets-pose of early Freddie Mercury. Bereted frontman Dante Gizzi partly models himself on Che Guevera. They're certainly a band of characters and yet visually are pulling in as many directions as their music. They dabble in Clinton-type funk, Seventies AM radio pop and heavy metal solos ... all in the first number.

No doubt signed with an eye to replicating the Sisters' huge success, it's difficult to decide whether El Presidente are a funky, guitar-wielding beast shoved into a Scissor-shaped hole, or whether the bizarre diversity in their set is occurring as they're trying to climb out of it.

Recent single 100 mph reached Number 28 but they're facing the uphill slog of building a fan base without their own identifiable sound. "We played our first gig here," sighs Gizzi, leather jacket creaking. "There were 10 people." So there's progress, but Gizzi seems to lack the confidence to take the bull by the horns and rouse the crowd. "What are you doing?" shouts a heckler at an awkward silence. It takes Gizzi a minute to respond.

However, El Presidente could yet be fantastic with some careful surgery. Drummer Dawn Zhu radiates detached oriental cool but plays the same drumbeat in every song, some of which could be the slick workouts of a club band. They fare much better with the pop-goes-Zeppelin rifforama of 100 mph, and the ridiculously catchy, Prince-y I Can't Stick Around. As this segues seamlessly into the gutsy Rick James groove of (Fly Like A) Rocket, they seem reborn with fiery, funk-eged rock. They should decide on this direction and stick with it, no matter what anybody tells them.

· At York Fibbers Wednesday (01904 466149) and touring