If anything is guaranteed to make the drooping eyelids of indie fans fly open at the Insomniacs Ball - an all-night, indoor live music festival - it's the verbose claims of the Blood Arm's MC, Ben Lee Handler. He leads a chorus of "hallelujahs" and "fuck yeahs", before summing up the group as "the only band that make a man radiate not with pure toxicity, but love".

Singer Nathaniel Fregoso certainly glows with ardour. He crowd-surfs, jumps off stage to sing and dance, and sits on the floor to croon the lilting Angela. "Rumour has it I have a decent bottom," Fregoso says, giving it a wiggle. The funky keyboards of Suspicious Character have everyone joining in, and Fregoso keeps it up throughout their soul-driven, Strokes-indebted pop gems, even climbing on to a speaker in case anyone has failed to catch a glimpse of his charms.

But it is the band's sparkling pop, rather than Fregoso's pin-up poses, that is seductive, from the sugar rush of Do I Have Your Attention? to the sexy regret of All My Love. But Fregoso's passion and unpredictability make it sizzle.

Also at the Ball, the Young Knives woo rather than antagonise. "It looks shit out there," says singer and guitarist Henry Dartnell - unfortunately, their indie-by-numbers fails to lift the mood. Dartnell's bass-playing brother is blessed with a rich voice that gives an undulating violence to the stabbing rock of Weekends and Bleak Days (Hot Summer), but vocal volleying between the two cannot replace the charisma they lack. Two new songs, stripped of catchy choruses in favour of angelic harmonies, only remind us how long a night in indie heaven can be.

· The Blood Arm play the Night & Day Cafe, Manchester (0161-236 4597), tonight. Then touring.