It’s always nice when bands make an effort, and, as tonight’s gig coincides with Halloween, plaudits must be given to You Me At Six (YMAS) and all their support bands, who all dressed up for the occasion. YMAS do their whole set dressed from head to foot in fuzzy animal suits.

Tonight’s show is the start of YMAS’s biggest UK tour to date and will cap a superb year for the band in which their second record Hold Me Down has gone silver in the UK; they’ve built a good fanbase across Europe and the US. With this is mind, it’s no wonder YMAS bounce on to the stage and produce a performance so full of confidence that it’s hard to believe the band are barely out of their teens. They race through their set with a gusto and stage presence that will make them the envy of other bands.

YMAS follow a classic formula of successful pop punk bands in that every single one of their tracks seems to have been soaked in a fluorescent energy drink. Much like Green Day and Jimmy Eat World before them, they can fire up a room with a single guitar riff and have choruses that are stickier than a spillage of said orange drink.

Lyrically, each track walks a tightrope between posturing and pleading, with singer Josh Francesci one minute whipping the crowd up with messages of defiance to lovers past and the next begging them to come back to him. Bruising and bombastic in their live show, YMAS’s set has been chiselled into a tight, muscular hour, only dipping in energy at carefully thought out stages and keeping the crowd in the palm of their hands throughout.

Save It For The Bedroom, Playing The Blame Game and the closing Underdog all have the Regal screaming for more — which they’ll get when YMAS return next year, most likely in venues that seat many thousands.