After what seems like an eternity away from the limelight, perennial party band the Sunshine Underground returned to York on Friday.

Their radio silence over the past couple of years doesn’t seem to have dented their popularity any, with tickets for this Duchess gig selling out soon after going on sale.

The band’s last full run of UK shows was a support slot with the Happy Monday’s a couple of years ago. Friday’s affair was clearly on a much smaller scale – but the energy and power of the Underground shone through.

The 45-minute set was packed with new material, much was heavier than 2006’s slower burner debut Raise The Alarm.

Frontman Craig Wellington says the Queens Of The Stone Age were a big influence during their recent time in the studio hammering out the new record. And nowhere is that grungy desert drone clearer than on Coming To Save You.

The band’s party rock vibe, reminiscent of New Order and the Mondays – and which initially saw them lumped in the NME’s misjudged nu-rave camp – is still there. There’s plenty of cowbell and syncopation on promising new number In Your Arms.

The new stuff was well-received, but it was the big hits that got the Duchess’ lively pit moving. Commercial Breakdown and an anticipation-building version of Borders were brilliant, while the night came to an end with signature tune Put You In Your Place. And what a place it was.