WATCHING Echo And The Bunnymen (EATB) perform at The Esplanade theatre made me realise how much today's alternative bands owe the bands of yesteryear.

EATB were one of the pioneers of the British alternative scene at a time when slick New Wave dance-pop sounds were the norm and bands all dressed in colourful suits.

EATB wore black, and their music was often moody, hypnotic and ... catchy.

Guitarist Will Sergeant had said prior to the show that it didn't matter whether they were playing in front of 50 people or 5,000 - they'd still bring their "A" game.

At the concert on Monday night, the venue was less than half full, but EATB still dished out the goods with aplomb. Well, if you could call stoically standing still "aplomb".

Singer McCulloch hardly moved from his position behind the mic stand for 95 per cent of the concert, as he sometimes snarled his way through the songs.

Dressed in black (natch) and wearing sunnies, he was, as someone remarked, like Liam Gallagher before Liam Gallagher. And when he did step forward, it was to adjust the fan in front of him. (That's the wind machine and not a person appreciative of his music.)

He wasn't above cussing people he didn't like (sorry, Ringo Starr) and he didn't take hecklers lightly. Sergeant - the other original member - was content for most part to hide in the fog created by the smoke machine, as his guitar churned out chiming notes and ringing chords.

The other members of the band hardly figured into the equation. Thanks to the lighting, you couldn't even see what they looked like. A more appropriate name for the band would have been The Shadows.

But the focus was on the music. And it was good - whether it was the jangly Bring On The Dancing Horses, or the quirky Bedbugs And Ballyhoo, or the time-honoured Killing Moon, or a medley of Lou Reed's Walk On The Wild Side, The Beatles' Don't Let Me Down and Wilson Pickett's Midnight Hour.

They came, they played and they conquered - a couple of people who'd never heard them before said they were bowled over by the performance.

At the end, McCulloch said: "We wanted to do Till We Meet Again, then I realised we'll probably not meet again."

What he meant by that, we can't say for certain, but it be sad if we couldn't see them do this one more time.