So it was no surprise whatsoever that the Islington Academy was packed to bursting point, with people from all over the country – scrap that – Europe coming to the London show. The opening bands, Chief and Random Hand were well received, particularly the latter. Their innovative brand of ska-core got a lot of feet moving, the Keighley band were applauded and cheered throughout, and not just from the Yorkshire contingent who had travelled down for the gig. But, clichéd as it may sound, tonight was all about the headliners. As Propagandhi took to the stage, to unfettered screams, you just knew that tonight was going to be something special. Opening with the title track from their (outstanding) new album, ‘Supporting Caste’, the capacity yelled along in unison, with ‘Teritum Non Datur’ and ‘The Banger’s Embrace’ closely following.

Propagandhi are a punk band who play thrash metal. It’s that simple. New songs such as ‘Dear Coaches Corner’ and ‘Human(e) Meat’ sound fantastic live, the former being one of the highlights of the night. However, with four other very highly rated albums, they were never likely to run out of songs to play. ‘A Speculative Fiction’ and ‘Bringer of Greater Things’ roused the crowd, but nothing was received quite as well as the outstanding punkier ‘And We Thought Nation States Were a Bad Idea’, from ‘Less Talk, More Rock’.

As the band lashed through track after track, the crowd was unrelenting, everybody making the most of this rare opportunity to catch the Canadians’ in action. Perhaps the most poignant moment of the night lay in the unbearable tension during the start of ‘Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An’, as the song thrashed into action, all hell was raised. An fantastic reaction to a fantastic song, chartering the progress of Bella Gahlos, in her bid for freedom from oppression in East Timor. With the bassist and occasional singer, Rod, having lost his voice, the band demanded a fan to step up and sing ‘Fuck the Border’, a Spanish girl took the stage, and grasped the mike. She didn’t have a great grasp of the lyrics of the song (repeatedly screaming ‘Fuck the border!’ down the mic, although this is not a ridiculous way off it) but it didn’t matter. Heads were banged. The band closed their set with the first song from their first album, the ever-green skate-punk classic ‘Anti-Manifesto’, but were soon called back for an encore.

In a shocking twist of events, the lead singer of an old, old band, Black Widow, stepped out on to the stage, dressed in a strange shiny black cape. On the end of ‘Supporting Caste’, Propagandhi had tacked on a ‘hidden track’ of sorts; a cover of Widow’s religion baiting ‘Come to the Sabbat’. They proceeded to play the song, with the original singer on vocals, dressed up as if for Halloween. ‘Bizarre’ and ‘really, really strange’ don’t even begin to explain it. The band finished off with the final track from ‘Today’s Empires Tomorrow’s Ashes’, the spine tingling ‘Purina Hall of Fame’, and with a final, cathartic, explosive guitar solo, and a last farewell, the band were gone. For how long exactly, nobody knows.