Martha @ Soup Kitchen, 1 July

“I feel like we should say something but I’m just in despair,” concedes Nathan Stephens-Griffin from behind his drumkit. ‘I miss E.U, I’m lonely,’ reads his bassdrum. Despite the emphasis on inclusivity and positivity at DIY shows such as this, the mood inside Soup Kitchen is inevitably subdued.

T-Shirt Weather’s opening set is predictably riotous, and the feedback-laden grunge of Doe splits ears as effortlessly as it captures hearts, but the referendum result casts an irremovable shadow over the night. On 23 June, Manchester had the strongest Remain vote in the North West, and the army of punks that Martha attract were likely among the most passionately anti-Brexit voters. “It’s alright though,” guitarist JC Cairns tries to convince himself. “We’re all having a good time.” 

Not that the self-billed “queer, vegan, straight-edge anarchists” needed it, but this Durham gang have more reason than ever to spit in the face of the status quo – which leads to a blisteringly impassioned set of pop-punk mayhem.

'When it rains / Well, it really fucking pours,' an impeccably apt refrain, is belted back at Martha by a near-dangerously packed venue as they launch into Chekhov’s Hangnail’s life-affirming chorus. The rapid pace at which the four-piece fly through their set doesn’t allow time for anybody to think about anything else but tonight, and with that Martha make everything seem okay for a while.

The cries of 'this tepid hell' during Bubble In My Bloodstream are delivered with rolling eyes and are twice as loaded as they were at the band’s Sounds From The Other City show in May, but Martha provide a timely reminder that outsider art, as fractured as it may get, will never be killed by the powers that be. Can we have a Martha show every time the government screws us over?