Dressed in identikit blue dresses, Naoko Yamano, Ritsuko Taneda and Emi Morimoto stormed the stage and played a furious set to an adoring, pogo-ing crowd. The gentleman in front of me disclosed that he had been to see Shonen Knife the previous night – in Belfast.

It’s hardly surprising that they have such a dedicated fanbase given that Kurt Cobain said of the groundbreaking outfit “when I finally got to see Shonen Knife live, I was transformed into a nine year old girl at a Beatles concert” and enlisted them as the opening act for Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ tour.

What is unbelievable is that Shonen Knife are no less than 32 years into their career and about to release their 20th album ‘Overdrive’, when the experience of seeing them is as young and fresh as if they had been incarnated yesterday.

Drummer Morimoto proved especially watchable, hammering out her chops with boundless glee and grinning widely under a sharp black bob.

Irresistibly upbeat and unabashedly formulaic, while Shonen Knife’s style owes much to the influence of The Ramones and their typically three-minute long attack tracks, the fact they are female and Japanese makes them much more interesting than their US heroes.