The relentless yuppification of London's east end continues apace. The estate agent opposite the Old Blue Last has a window full of glitzy pads for well-heeled professionals, priced at levels which don't necessarily require a millionaire's income, but it helps. Standing as a battered outpost of traditional London scruffiness, the Old Blue Last defiantly stares down the advancing moneyed hordes - and blasts them with regular doses of ramshackle rock music from its upstairs room. Whether this will turn back the upwardly-mobile tide is a moot point, but tonight let's give it a try in the company of honourary heroes of the UK tour circuit, The Human Value.

Playing the last gig of their extended UK tour marathon before decamping back to Los Angeles, sandwiched tonight between an indie-rock version of Led Zeppelin and a bunch of scruffy mods, The Human Value could be forgiven for taking this one easy. But 'easy' isn't in this band's box of tricks, not even on the last day of term. Let's face it, shifting the band to the opposite side of the Atlantic for several months of rock 'n' roll wasn't exactly the easy option in the first place. Once you've taken that bold step, it makes no sense to slack off.

So, without ceremony, the trio crank up a a set of shuddering thunder, in which looming tsunamis of Hiram's guitar dash themselves gleefully against the rocks of new drummer Tim's implacable beats. (Yep, the band have a new drummer...it seems there was a gardening aqccident somewhere along the way.) Turu's punk rock blues vocal slides from agonised to assertive and back again, all the while hauling the band's racket forward from the front. Compressed into the Old Blue Last's small upstairs room, it's all a heady blast, a concentration of energy beamed at the audience on carrier waves of ripped 'n' dirty new wave-ness, but at the same time chopped up neatly into songs you can't help wanting to take home in your pocket. A neat trick if you can pull it off, and after honing their sonic art to a needle-point on the gig circuit, it all comes naturally to The Human Value.

'Complications' is a deliciously agonised anthem, but the showstopper, as ever, is 'I Don't Care', which tonight extends itself into a surrealist rock opera, all stops and starts and ever-higher crescendos of chaos. While Turu doesn't fall to the floor or attack the fixtures and fittings tonight (all part of the show at previous gigs), Hiram ups the disorder ante by climbing up onto the amps and embarking on an oddysey around the stage on top of the backline, keeping the guitar noise coming all the way.

Control and chaos: now that's what The Human Value do best, and it's their instinctive balancing act on the tipping point between those two extremes that makes it all work. Our gig circuit will be a quieter and definitely less interesting place in their absence.

Essential links:

The Human Value: Myspace

Old Blue Last: Myspace

For more photos from this gig, find The Human Value by name here.