Who would want to be a drummer? First, an onslaught of drum machines threatened to put a generation of tubthumpers out of business. Spoof band Spinal Tap introduced the trend of drumming disappearances - via bizarre gardening accidents and spontaneous combustion - now seemingly being applied in real life by the Fall. Now adding insult to injury come a band whose beats are provided by a tap dancer.

Still, at least unemployed percussionists can take some consolation from the fact that foot-shuffling Jamie Pressnall is not the band's main focal point. She taps away amid her bandmates' colourful combination of stripy and spotted tights, tattooed arms and a dress that appears to have been made from the tassels at the bottom of lampshades; three girls and two guys, all of them pointing in different directions like some weird five-headed monster.

Musically - and despite their novelty, the music is an important bit - Tilly and the Wall have taken the way indie bands used to sound (twee, sensitive, gooey) and added Abba and several swear words. "I wanna fuck it up!" exclaims singing bassist Neely Jenkins in a song that sounds like Madonna in a wind tunnel. The quintet from Omaha exude a similar, almost religious glee as Polyphonic Spree and are as equally likely to inspire listeners to worship or commit seppuku.

Although songs such as Night of the Living Dead are undoubtedly spiffing, their self-conscious wackiness - including bizarre hand movements mid-song - grates after a while. By the time Pressnall, Jenkins and Kianna Alarid tap together in a six-shoe "drum solo", you start to wish a disgruntled drummer would sabotage proceedings by smearing oil across the stage.

· At Manchester University (0161-832 1111), tonight. Then touring.