Childhood / MayHeGo @ Sneaky Pete's, 24 April

It doesn’t take much to make Sneaky Pete’s feel busy. When Edinburgh trio MayHeGo kick their set into gear (yes, that’s a play on ‘Mexico’), the crowd might seem thin. But, like their music, it builds fast. Using the classic guitar-bass-drums triad to layer big, sweeping sounds, they channel math rock complexity atop Ableton-constructed beats.

Frontman Scott Tulloch tinkers with the laptop between sets, but the real mastery comes from the instruments, the lasses in particular (Marième on bass and Jamie on the tubs) pumping out chunky lines and stop-starting with hot-footed polyrhythms. Bar a couple of autotuned vox snippets the set is engagingly instrumental.

They say the term ‘shoegaze’ comes in part from the shuffling introversion of shy bands afraid to look up from their guitars, and in part from the necessity to monitor countless effects pedals for that trademark hazy sound. Childhood definitely fulfill the latter, with all three guitarists needing dozens of the things.

But beneath Ben Romans-Hopcroft’s colossal hair there’s an affable, grinning confidence; this band isn’t shy by a long shot. Certainly not when the set tonight manages to be both laidback and woozy, and jiving with a hasty energy. With a debut album still in the works, we’re treated to a couple of new singles, including Falls Away, a dreamy, beached number that shows off Ben’s falsetto. They close with an extended Solemn Skies, blasting us with an escalating tunnel of noise, and for a Thursday, that’s not a bad fuckin’ thing. [George Sully]