As Bob Dylan once sang: “I can’t help it, if you might think I’m odd. Loving you not for what you are, but for what you’re not.”

Thus, VARIOUS CRUELTIES are the epitome of ‘Not’.

They are not electro! Not retro-Britpop (the next big thing?). Not in the Tipsters Polls. And not in east London! They are tied up in Nots.

Tonight though, in a surprisingly Sold Out 100 Club (even the band seem a little shocked; they thank us for coming a lot. “If it wasn’t for you, well, it would be….a rehearsal”) they are rich and warm and characteristically understated.

Singer Liam O’Donnell has something of the Jarvis Cocker about him, an eye for drudgery chic (“This stage is a bit long”) and an ear for melody, his unpretentious Yorkshire speaking voice giving away in the songs to a sort of malleable ‘80s alt-pop croon.

They have grown apace since I first saw them last year at The Bull & Gate and then our Going Deaf night at Camden Crawl. They seem more at ease, unhurried to the point where you sometimes wonder whether this is a rehearsal.

Yet this is Not one of those London shows where you suspect a band is simply going through the motions, begrudgingly paying their dues; impatiently waiting for the Big Break. This is a kind of craftsmanship, steadily beginning to shine.

Already confident enough to dispense with current single ‘The Great Unknown’ and the slowly sashaying, twangy ode to a goddess ‘If It Wasn’t For You’ relatively early, they explore some of the other tracks from their forthcoming debut album, due in the Spring (the smouldering, atmospheric ‘Magnetic Fields’ is another stand-out).

It is Not (again) going to be easy for them in this climate, but as I wander toward the door, during the final song ‘Chemicals’, I have something approaching a glow in my stomach.

And is Not the vodka.

Various Cruelties: bloody dry ice!