Death From Above 1979

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Aside from Pulp, it's very hard to think of any other reunion in 2011 that has gotten people more excited than Canadian noise rock duo Death From Above 1979. Hysteria greeted their initial return to London with two gigs at the Forum in May and the popularity of those shows has meant another trip to the capital for a bigger show at Brixton Academy. A fair amount of people here tonight have already seen them once this year and were after one more fix of nostalgia before it the reunion grinds to a halt.

The Computers were the night's main support and they impressed massively. A healthy mix of heavy modern rock and 50s punk was performed with gusto and their frontman Alex Kershaw had a seemingly endless supply of energy. He even went into the audience towards the end to play the last two songs before being lifted up for a spot of crowd-surfing - much to his surprise, as his facial expression upon being raised was priceless.

The duo of Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F Keeler arrive onstage just after quarter past nine and launch straight into Turn It Out, the opener from You're A Woman, I'm A Machine. Most of that record plus older EP tracks and b-sides are played; nearly their entire discography, the truth be told. Pull Out was played at such speed that it felt merely a minute long and the title track of their sole LP was just as loud and furious.

It's the hits that unsurprisingly draw the most energetic reaction from the crowd. After a brief interlude of relaxed stage banter from Grainger, Blood On Our Hands takes people by surprise, sparking a lot of moshing. Signature tune Romantic Rights is allowed to extend its breakdown in the middle, so that the drummer can unleash his inner frontman to shimmy on the stage and among the crowd. No wonder the set raced by and after an hour it was all done.

However well they perform, for the first 15 minutes atmosphere was missing from the set. When they arrive the venue is nowhere near sold out and it remains this way for a while. It was almost as if you were watching a support band, albeit one you like. Once Black History Month gets going, which is when the pace relents for a few minutes, it starts to get better. But you wonder whether this is a venue too big for them.

So, what are the chances of Death From Above 1979 getting back together permanently after this run of shows? Their camaraderie onstage suggested that, while friendly, this was a professional working relationship, and it's fair to say the chances of them recording again are slim. There's also only so far that their music can go, and in the relatively big environment of Brixton Academy it reached its zenith. That doesn't mean that the gig wasn't good – it was excellent – but you get the sense that there's not much left for them to achieve, and that maybe splitting up after one album was a good idea after all.