Bit of an odd one this. Turns out this isn’t a gig at all, but one big advert for Belvedere Vodka. I’m a big fan of anything that’s the business end of a cocktail, but seriously, anyone that says that one vodka is radically different from another once it’s drowned in fruit juice is lying through their arse and should be avoided at all costs. Vodka is a clolse cousin of the stuff my car runs on and that’s an end of it.

Tonight though, there’s bucketloads of it swilling around for free, so instead of your average Edinburgh crowd for a popular unsigned band, it’s like the office party. Lots of frocks, lots of chatting up, and LOTS of drunk women. And you know what – it was probably the most fun crowd I’ve ever seen while watching a ‘credible’ band. Hipsters take note – fucking cheer up, would you, life’s just better that way.

Anyway, there are DJ sets either side of Come On Gang, which I pay precisely no notice of, partly because I’m too busy snarfing free vodka, and partly because I wouldn’t know a good DJ set if it came up and smashed my face in. So, back to the indie pop, I’m a bit more sure-footed there.

It’s been a while since I last saw Come On Gang back at the start of the year – since then, they’ve been to SXSW, played a bundle of decent support slots, and got a new cheerful and mohican-ed bassist called Rob. Tonight’s eight-song set doesn’t go anywhere new song-wise, with new-ish ones Red Fred and Santa Maria being the only two tracks not off the setlist from last year, but they seem to be playing with bagfuls more confidence. It might have just been the soundman’s skills but it sounds like they’ve grown new muscles, and are making it look easier and easier as time goes on.

Opener Wheels is still as instantly engaging as the first time I heard it, tonight played slightly slower than normal, and sounding all the more confident for it. The riff-tabulous Both Ends Burning and Coffee Shop pick up the pace again, with Sarah’s vocal pouring it’s usual honey all over the sharp-tailored guitar racket. I skip the quieter Wood For The Trees on the basis that it’s just not that pop, but come back for the two newer ones.

Santa Maria really shows off how sleek they’re getting – heavyweight Yeah Yeah Yeah guitar hooks over a pounding and relentless backdrop, with even Sarah’s choral antics sounding like it’s been knocking back the strong continentals and has decided IT WANTS TO FIGHT YOU NOW. It’s a bloody nose over a cup of tea, and is fast becoming the soundtrack in my head to the best fight ever. Soon-to-be the new single Red Fred meanwhile, gets back to a more UK-sounding guitar pop racket but is again less wide-eyed than earlier stuff, while staying way jumpy and way fun, reminding me strangely of The Housemartins. It’s a little gem, and will be a cracker when it comes out of the studio. Best of all, it’s got a cowbell in it – a fucking cowbell! It takes stones the size of Volkswagens to put a cowbell in any song because let’s face it, they sound shit most of the time.

Finishing off with Start The Sound – one of my all-time favourite songs, which still manages to sound like it could blow the bricks off a stadium, without ever acting like it’s better than you – and a reprise-laden Spinning Room – let’s play the chorus again, just for fun, wheee! – it all seems to be coming together the way its supposed to.

Appropriately enough, Sarah mentions – to huge drunken whoops, it was that kind of crowd – that she graduated earlier in the day. Come On Gang have also come of age now, past the bit where we love them like puppies, at that stage where we want them to start to venture out and hunt for themselves. They’ve got the songs in the cupboard, no doubt, and they’re still brimming with enough vim and spunk and snot and sugar and energy for six whole bands on stage – the next year will see whether they’ve got enough of the right stuff to take them further than hometown hero status.