Gang of One. Ok, that's out of the way. How does a band persevere with the original roster down to one? Pretty well in Gang of Four's case. Memory tends to inflate the reputation of the past - but there really were a few cracking good G of 4 shows over the years. Last night's show didn't quite reach that rarified pantheon - last year's Paradise show among them. But the band gave it a go for the 3/4 capacity partisan crowd.

Drummer Jonny Finnegan lays down a crisp, busy, propulsive groove that accentuates the rhythmic kicks in the melodies. He brings the clatter on the dissonant breakdowns in Paralyzed, Anthrax and the new Isle of Dogs.

Thomas McNeice muscular, funked up bass kicks asses and shakes booties pole to pole. He swoops and slides around the stage. He bends into the big ones, throws back his dreads and synchs the twitch and skank contingent at the front of the stage.

John "Gaoler" Sterry faces the formidable challenge of filling Jon King's iconic role. He shimmies and primps to good effect. Sterry makes up in youthful brio what he lacks in gravitas. Coming out of his mouth the polemics on the back catalog seem a bit second hand. The fit is better on Stranded, the new crew's update of G of 4's ping-pong conversation arrangement trick from their somewhat helter skelter new disc, What Comes Next.

Finally, there is gang of one guitarist extraordinaire, Andy Gill. His sound is by turns cool and professional, jagged and surgical and smashed and spastic. One chord from his fantastically terse guitar and his cover is blown. He skitters and stutters across the stage. He throws a pose and sprays his unmistakable spatter of serrated chordal sound throughout the room. His curt, precise solos are sizzling hot. Each note strengthens the trademark of his aural brand.

G of 4 were never household names over here. If you were lucky, you turned onto their heady mix of lefty politics, post punk refinements, vocal intensity and punk/funk skin graft experiments. If the on again off again stretches in their career left you felling itchy, then tonight's reconstituted G of 4 probably rubbed you the right way.