For a good young band in 2007, life moves with bewildering speed. It's only 18 months since the five-piece Black Kids (three of whom are white) formed in Jacksonville, Florida, and just four since their free-to-download Wizard of Ahhhs EP sparked an online brushfire of excitement.

But it seems the buzz hasn't yet reached this venue, where Black Kids' first UK show finds them supporting the Courteeners. "I see that a lot of you guys are kinda just standing there watching us," says frontman Reggie Youngblood, surveying the static dancefloor. "And you're really just wasting your time, because we must be the most unfortunate-looking band ever."

He is being too harsh. Black Kids' dichotomous image is the perfect advertisement for their music. Ali Youngblood and Dawn Watley, in 1960s short dresses and tall boots, blurt girl-group chants and skipping-rope raps from behind their keyboards, while Reggie sings with the gulping drama of Robert Smith. I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You does the maths and resembles a mid-1980s Cure hit performed by the Go! Team on prom night. Hurricane Jane's teen-angst cry of "It's Friday night and I ain't got nobody" is flipped on its head by a jubilant melody and disco shimmer. Practically every song sounds like a single, as Motown drums and Chic grooves collide with Reggie's roaring guitar and the wry lyrics of an outsider who knows he is hipper and more charming than the in-crowd. Songs such as the gallopingly catchy Look At Me While I Rock With You already sound as though they could work in venues several times bigger.

But a support band's lot is not a happy one. "You might want to dance," a grinning Watley teases the stolidly unmoved Courteeners crowd. "That's not cool," demurs Reggie, wary of seeming too needy. No matter. This time next year, they'll all be dancing.

· At Barfly, London (0844 8472424), tonight. Then touring.