CUMBRIA’S conceptual darlings, also known as the experimental group British Sea Power, electrified a crowded Fibbers last night.

Playing amid a cornucopia of artificial foliage and fluorescent lighting, frontmen and brothers Yan and Neil Wilkinson led the five-piece group (on cornets, violas and keyboards), through a handful of crowd favourites such Atom and Waving Flags from their 2008 album Do you Like Rock Music.

Coming over as a fusion of Joy Division’s energy and The Cure’s electronic-guitar layering, the band’s sleepy experimental numbers The Guillemot Girls and From The Sea To The Land Beyond, from their most recent album, sharply contrasted with the intensity of their opening song choices.

Having been on the post-punk circuit for 14 years now, British Sea Power have expanded their musical repertoire considerably.

Ensuring they preserved the heady theatricals that brought them their initial label signing, their stomping vocal style has evolved into a brooding mellifluousness, especially in light of their other 2013 album release Machineries Of Joy; a title based on a 1964 collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury.

Although the band are partly well known for their often eccentric visual choices, including the appearance on stage of stuffed birds and bear costumes, the Fibbers audience did not witness this hallmark of British Sea Power’s performances on this occasion.

This fact didn’t seem to perturb fans too much, however, as the already wired mood decidedly reached a crescendo by the end with clamours for encore after encore to close this sell-out show.

- Mary O’Connor