The Duke Spirit @ The Dome, London

It's all gone a bit Raging Bull in the Duke Spirit camp: at tonight's secret show, the band are making the most of a full-scale boxing ring - which just happens to be plonked in the middle of the venue - and as the lights go dark and the flashbulbs split the shadows, you'd be forgiven for expecting Robert De Niro to come swaggering out.

Instead it's Liela Moss who immediately high kicks the ropes containing her band, arms pointed at the sky and grinning like a demonic pixie. The subtext of tonight couldn't be clearer: the Dukes are fighting fit and pumped up to defend their title.

Just to emphasise that it's all about the now, they play forthcoming third album Bruiser from beginning to end, with its highlights ranging from the sci-fi surrealism of piano epic 'Villain' to the shexshy bassline and enormous OK Computer-echoing chorus of 'Bodies'.

Usually these 'new album' gigs can be a bit alienating, but Bruiser is an instant charmer - so by the time they rip into the more familiar adrenalin-shot of 'Everybody's Under Your Spell', the audience is already rapturous. Still darkly ecstatic, still gracefully passionate, on this form the Duke Spirit are shadow boxers par excellence.