Desperate Journalist @ Gullivers, Manchester, 25 Feb

"No talking between songs," whispers Jo Bevan. "I demand silence." She allows herself a wry smile while catching her breath. For once, Manchester (so often curious and well-mannered rather than supportive), has little to answer for. Desperate Journalist's headline debut in the city pulls a large and boisterous crowd, and the London four-piece take this as their cue.

With the release of their second album, the remarkable Grow Up, still a month away, a scattering of as-yet-unreleased songs flips the norm and only adds to the set's momentum. The hardcore throw themselves at Control and Cristina, a brace of diamonds from 2015's self-titled debut, but the new songs outstrip the old throughout: in an instant, these are your new old favourites.

It's the sweetest irony, of course, that the greyest, wettest day of the year has fired up – rather than kept away – the band's expanding local fanbase. And while Desperate Journalist have the modesty and charm to mock their miserablist inclinations, they are increasingly accomplished communicators: balancing the poetry and complex intimacies of Bevan's lyrics with the brute physicality of their live show is some feat.

The stage is alive with action but Desperate Journalist eschew strike-a-pose aping in favour of commitment and performance. Bevan, mic cord wrapped around her neck and bracing against the stage for added traction during the chorus ('5-4-3-2-1 and it's over!') of Resolution, is stage centre and compelling. But her band-mates offer ample distraction: Rob Hardy on guitar, and the implacable pairing of Simon Drowner (bass) and Caz Helbert (drums). Helbert, in particular, is a revelation tonight: increasingly managing industry and feel like a young Stephen Morris.

But it is those new songs that leave the darkest bruises: a thundering Hollow; the frantic scrawl of Why Are You So Boring; I Try Not To – a canny opener, whose soaring hook is a bittersweet wonder. Your Genius is a haunted ballad; Lacking In Your Love a mid-tempo behemoth with anthem ambitions. An encore of early independent release Organ is a potent reminder that this lot were always going to overhaul the sluggish pack, and the room shakes. Provocateurs in how they so eloquently and so forcefully renounce schmindie; transgressors through stuffing a sound forged from post-punk with so much damn melody: Desperate Journalist are a band like no other.