The Fall @ Koko, London

On warm-up duties are Norwich’ s Scumbag Philosopher, who perform an intriguing set of PowerPoint anti-pop, a series of dryly humorous tunes such as ‘God is Dead so I Listen to Radiohead’ . Stand-up drummer/shouter Anne Reekie seems to be having a great time and deadpan vocalist Grant Madden is sporting a supremely stylish t-shirt declaring his love for Pope John Paul II. Classy.

The band provides a great appetiser, but for this crowd of devotees nothing can compare with The Fall. There's a palpable sense of anticipation in Koko’s cavernous music hall as we wait for the arrival of the band and the malevolent presence of Mark E. Smith.

That anticipation is answered when The Fall’ s current band members take to the stage and kick straight into the stabbing and hypnotic rock of ‘Cosmos’. After a wait, the crowd erupts into cheers as the thorny figure of Smith appears from the shadows and starts growling his way through the new tune in his unmistakable threatening and semi-coherent style.

Next up is ‘Hot Cake’ from the band’s brilliant Your Future Our Clutter album. From here on in we are treated to a flawless procession of masterpieces from Smith’s enormous back catalogue, along with less familiar new songs which all sound equally addictive.

A whacking cover of The Sonics’ ‘Strychnine’ is followed by the awkward punk of ‘Muzorewi's Daughter’. Elena Poulou, who in addition to her role as Korg maestro is also married to Smith, leads the way on the anthemic chant of ‘I've Been Duped’ .

One lucky individual down the front is apparently celebrating – a ‘happy birthday’ helium balloon floats and bobs in front of Smith as he barks his way through old favourite ‘Psykick Dancehall’ and the set ends with the sinister thrash of ‘Wolf Kidult Man’.

Following a break the band are back for a stomp through medicinal classic ‘Mr. Pharmacist’, after which the evening’ s proceedings seem to be over. The lights come up, plastic cups are swept away and the crowd of loyal and sated fans start making their way to the door.

Suddenly, a blast of keyboard and bass announces a second encore, the lights are off, and the distinctly grey and balding mosh pit is back and gleefully bouncing to ‘Reformation’, an awesome finale to a blistering evening of renegade rock.

Given Smith’ s squad rotation system of hiring and firing, a career as playing in The Fall is unlikely to be a job for life, but in this current line-up he seems to have a created a team with really fine form, playing tight and raw.

John Peel famously commented that part of the attraction of The Fall is that they are ‘are always different, they are always the same’ . On this evidence they keep getting better.