Dark, brooding, spaced-out and powerful, no one does fuzzed-up psych-rock like the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Their deep West Coast acid rock is the soundtrack to late nights in smoke filled basements or mashed-up festivals.

So it comes as some surprise to find these creatures of the night thrashing out a wall of distorted blues-rock amidst a sea of dry ice at a time when most people are still at home watching soaps and finishing their dinner.

But then it's Wednesday in the strictly smoke-free Carling Academy, and not even the super-cool BRMC can delay the start of that weekly circus of binge-drinking, foolishness and near nudity that is Fuzzy Ducks.

The early start is deceptive, however, and as soon as the guitars start growling and the blinding spotlights render the band invisible among acid red and blue, it could be anytime and anyplace. It's a hypnotic sensation.

The band, fronted by trademark leather-clad Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been, have that rare ability to condense time. With BRMC, the music is the drug - and it has lost none of its potency over the past decade.

Tonight sees the band still on a high after the release of this year's Baby 81 album, a return to that hook-laden garage rock they do best. Tunes like Weapon of Choice and Berlin are jangly, with spiraling vocals, and more urgent than the stoner drone-rock they are still best known for.

There are also some serious changes of tempo, with proceedings grinding to a halt for chilled-out solos and taking a bluesy turn for tunes from the Southern-fried Howl album anthem Ain't No Easy Way proving a harmonica-led stompalong highlight.

But still, it's the old favourites that get the crowd rocking, with the opening bars of Whatever Happened to My Rock and Roll, Red Eyes and Tears, Love Burns and the filthy grunge-laden riffs of Spread Your Love, generating a crackle of electricity among the transfixed crowd.

It's hard to get a mid-week crowd going though, especially this early, and the band admitted it had been a bit of a strange night, not helped by a touch of non-specified illness.

But they still managed to put on the best show seen downstairs at this venue so far. Quite simply: they rocked.

However, there's no getting away from it, it may not be big or clever, but it still seems wrong without the cigarette smoke!