Strutting into the now annual nostalgia-fest of the Don't Look Back season come Girls Against Boys (GVSB), with what singer and guitarist Scott McCloud describes as "the album where we learned how to play", Venus Luxure No 1 Baby.

Released in 1993, Venus Luxure thwarted the "difficult second album" syndrome by catapulting the Washington-spawned, New York City-educated band to indie rock fame. Noisy, seedy and with a rhythm section that features two bass guitars, GVSB grabbed the post-hardcore scene by its throat and watched its death throes with a sardonic smile.

Unwise excursions into electronica and drawn-out record company wrangling followed, and Venus Luxure now stands as perhaps GVSB's finest moment. McCloud's respectful approach certainly suggests so, his movements even more tightly contained than the swelling emotions that burn through every song.

While bassist and keyboard player Eli Janney whips off his Buddy Holly-style glasses and turns into a one-man moshpit, McCloud stares into the crowd, his guitar scratching at the thunderous basslines of In Like Flynn.

GVSB never let this tension slip, their music evocative of dark corners in late-night bars, their influences spanning the Vegas heights of the Rat Pack and truculent rock'n'roll. It's subtle too, an unquenchable longing edging through the rough and tumble of Let Me Come Down, emptiness and isolation blowing through Bughouse.

But for all Janney's abandon, you can't hear a thing he plays. McCloud is perennially hard to hear but, like Johnny Temple's lead bass, he demands more power than he gets. The sound improves and the band loosen up on three songs from Cruise Yourself, their third album. McCloud moves about the stage, his high notes egging on the murderous intent of Kill the Sexplayer, deference no longer an issue.