Sleaford Mods @ Manchester Academy 2, 15 May

Sleaford Mods probably weren't surprised by the general election result; to them, whatever the outcome, Britain’s rotten to the core. For those equally angry or apathetic towards where our country’s heading, Nottingham’s austere post-punk duo Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn could not have arrived in town at a better time. Opening with Bunch of Cunts, Fearn mans the laptop between sips of lager while Williamson’s poetry yanks the Academy 2 through an assault course of cultural debris.

From his brutal evisceration of middle management in Fizzy to Routine Dean’s gang chant of ‘I hate what you do and I don’t like you’, Williamson is an incendiary ringleader, lording his laddishness by blowing mock kisses to the crowd. Such goading goes down a treat in former industrial heartlands like Manchester, of course, lending the crowd a visceral menace when Boris Johnson’s name (dropped in McFlurry) beckons a hundred Vs to be flicked in the air.

Despite Williamson’s intoxicating swagger and the oppressive minimalism of Fearn’s arrangements, the Mods’ gallows humour often makes for perversely life-affirming material. "This song’s about the next five years... And the five years after that and the five years after that. There’s no end to the fuckin’ misery!" Williamson proclaims to a nihilistic cheer. Right on cue, Fearn kicks in Jobseeker's hilariously facile keyboard beat and the crowd starts a raucous mosh to a depressingly familiar tale of life driven by rudderless unemployment.

There is a genuine necessity for a British band like Sleaford Mods right now, giving voice to the disenfranchised working class who are too often marginalised by indie filler. As the pair leave the stage with triumphant gestures to the Gregorian suicidal ideation of Tweet Tweet Tweet, it’s clear that if we’re going to survive another Tory reign, the Mods will become more vital than ever. [Chris Ogden]