Gig played on 17/05/06

"Sometimes I think that I'm bigger than the sound" shrills Karen O to the adoring London branch of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs fanclub. Minutes later, as the spinning tornado of her presence vaporizes on a stage she's danced across like a kung-fu ballerina for 90 minutes, it's clear this party is far from over, despite what you may have heard. Because while their new album - "Show Your Bones" - may indeed bring the heartbreak, when you're a star glittering for your people, really, who cares?

"Show Your Bones" does appear to signal a comedown of sorts for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. O and guitar flamethrower Nick Zinner are understood to have fought during sessions for the LP, which found the Yeahs incorrigible icon confronting something other than a double whiskey. Splitting with long-term boyfriend Angus Andrew from weirdo rock heretics Liars and fleeing New York City for a clearer head in the Californian desert, Zinner was forcibly defanged, as O demanded the sonic space to express her heart as opposed to that righteous howl.

Ultimately - whether on-stage or on record - it all comes down to this one in a million rock thunderbolt and her crackerjack charm simply cannot be stopped tonight. Crucially, neither can Zinner or octopus drummer Brian Chase. Tearing at the leash from the go with "Gold Lion"'s crash into a banshee of noisy confusion, within minutes the band have ripped through a vicious "Pin" and into the bolting and, for sure, easier to swallow glee of "Honeybear" from "Show Your Bones".

Indeed, while newer tracks such as "Way Out" and "Turn Into" have a bigger, less demented taste and franker, confessional quality than "Fever To Tell"'s barbed wire kisses like "Rich" and "Black Tongue", here they're still delivered with freewheeling force and visceral live clout. Seemingly mirroring the one moment any Yeah Yeah Yeahs fan would have played at their funeral - the spindly then stratospheric soul arrow of "Maps" - "Cheated Hurts", "Dudley" and a stark "Warrior", spill water on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs inimitable fire but retain a hulking emotional power all of their own.

Elsewhere, the enormous guitar recoil spilling from Zinner on a white light "Phenomena" suggest this beast will again be allowed to bite when his master says so. O, meanwhile, is eternally captivating, whether she's firing a jet of water from her mouth across the crowd or provocatively stripping her gold outfit during the "I'm takin', takin', takin', takin', takin' it off" section of "Cheated Hearts". Clearly, she's not only bigger than the sound but pretty much anything else besides, including doomed romance.

by Ben Gilbert