With their fifth album Old Growth receiving rave reviews, this show by Washington DC psych-rockers Dead Meadow came hotly anticipated.

Before the main event, Portsmouth's You're Smiling Now But We'll All Turn Into Demons delivered a ferocious set recalling the guitar-thrashing heyday of Hüsker Dü.

Unfortunately, Brighton's own Bolide Awkwardstra temporarily derailed the evening with a free-jazz freakout that sounded like an accident in an instrument shop.

They couldn't give it away and the bar did a roaring trade.

Pint glasses duly topped up, an expectant crowd returned to see Dead Meadow launch into the new album's opening track Ain't Got Nothing (To Go Wrong).

Singer and lead guitarist Jason Simons promised to "sweat out all the troubles of the day" and was true to his word.

The Freebutt's cramped confines were soon heaving to a heady concoction of swirling guitar, looping rhythms and acid-drenched vocals.

Mining the distinctly uncommercial middle ground between Led Zep and sedate shoegaze (slippergaze, anyone?), their dreams of heavy rock becoming pop music seem unlikely.

But as tonight's rapt audience would attest, you have to admire the weight of their ambition.