“I’m sorry I’m so fucking boring,” says Sebastien Grainger from behind his drumkit halfway through Death from Above 1979’s barnstorming gig. “I should have had a kit like Tommy Lee’s that turns around like a rollercoaster.”

It’s true that the duo’s sparse stage set is significantly less razzle dazzle than Mötley Crüe’s: the only thing that can be likened to a prop are the matching facial hair of Grainger and bassist Jesse F Keeler. But you could never say this band were boring. The oft-cited line about DFA, whose 2004 debut You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine planted its seed of serrated riffology in modern rock, is that they were a one-trick pony ... but what a trick it was.

Tonight, songs from their debut elicit a reaction that is astonishing: the crowd erupt into circle pits and shirt-free moshing, as if Keeler’s growly basslines set off something primal inside them. The new songs, from recent second album The Physical World, are more nuanced, suggesting an expansion in their repertoire of tricks. The bouncy Gemini, with its line about a girl with “raspberry lips” who’s “never been kissed” could be the Foo Fighters, White Is Red, about a drag-racing ex who meets a sticky end, calls to mind Aerosmith’s Janie’s Got a Gun while lyrically lobotomised duo Right On, Frankenstein! (about zombies) and Virgins (about high school) trade in the confrontational chaos of yore for something more conventional: desert rock with a whiff of ZZ Top about it.

Indeed, when Keeler cradles his bass during closer The Physical World and enters into a solo that can only be described as Brian Mayesque, you can’t help but think that the world of fire, cannons and, yes, rollercoaster drums kits is not so far away after all.