Superficially, it is difficult to understand the logic behind this gig pairing.

Alphabeat are a clan of jitterbugs, rallying the crowd to at least sway to their infectious disco/pop combo. Tonight they were closer to S Club 7 in style and innocent good time fun than CSS or disco-Bowie as they have often been compared with.

As the girl/boy singing duo of Anders SG and Stine Bramsen cried “I wasn't looking for arty farty love”, there is no doubt that this is one band who don't take themselves seriously and the same could be said for the crowd. Some of the crowd seemed as if they were in the throes of some maniacal fit as Alphabeat commanded movement and jiggery from the very first jingle.

Leaving the crowd suitably high, Alphabeat were followed by Indie retro youngsters, Palladium.

Hordes of young women screamed expectantly, vying for attention from frontman and bassist, Peter Pepper. It was interesting to see a band who are currently on the outskirts of popularity being lauded as rock Gods already. Tonight, this premature show of popularity seemed to allow a dangerous level of complacency to sneak into Palladium's performance.

They came, they hurried through the set, taking little time to acknowledge the audience, and it wasn't until the encore that the band gave us a reason to be there.

During their performance Palladium didn't play as a band. They each had perfected solo parts which didn't fit together but seemed intent on showing the audience that they all had mastery of their instruments. Though they had mastery, (Pepper's bass hooks were funky) they had not managed to achieve the sound of a band where each compliments the other.

The arbitrarily placed keyboard parts could have taken a prominent role in the live act making them more than a guitar driven indie band. If they had played together, Palladium could have been a consistently rollicking quartet live.

Both bands had the purpose to get everybody up and dancing. Alphabeat, all bright colours, sweet harmonies and hyperactivity, gave the audience something to dance to. Signed to EMI records, there were no pretensions, just summery pop that will definitely be around come the summer festivals.

Palladium signed to Virgin, and are described as a band that will 'challenge everything you ever thought about music'. They might have had energy but didn't harness any of that into playing as a band. It was only when they played High 5 in the encore that we could see a flash of brilliance.

Maybe next time they play, Palladium could watch Alphabeat closely to see how to be a complete band. Until then, they will be largely ineffectual live.