These Glaswegian mavens of controlled mayhem shook the foundations of St David’s Hall on Monday night.

Hitting tinnitus-inducing levels of noise, Mogwai in full flight are one of the most awesome live experiences in rock music.

The phenomenal power of Mogwai gradually unfolds as the gig progresses. They start their set in lyrical keyboard-led mode and their frontman, Stuart Braithwaite, even sings sweetly on some songs from their early albums, such as Happy Songs for Happy People and Come on Die Young.

Instruments are swapped, and the guitar techs are kept busy with the constant changing of instruments.

Bassist, Dominic Aitchison, towers over his bandmates, a veritable giant sporting a ZZ Top-style beard, who is the solid foundation providing the pulverising bass notes which reverberate throughout the hall and our seated forms, whilst the second guitarist, Barry Burns, takes the shredding of his instrument to a whole new level.

When they let loose it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Noise levels reach the max and then they add a bit more.

Yes, this is the band that go up to 11; they are ‘one louder’ than any other band, to paraphrase a scene from Spinal Tap.

All this controlled chaos is held down by the phenomenal rhythms of drummer Martin Bulloch.

Mogwai climax their set with Mogwai Fear Satan, from the debut album Young Team, during which they bring all the instruments down to almost silence then suddenly unleash a blistering maelstrom of sound combined with flashing strobes which scares the living daylights out of everyone. It’s like a bomb going off.

Mogwai were the prime exponents of quiet-loud post-rock when they began more than 20 years ago; they proved they are still one of the best live acts on the planet.

They encore with the 20-minute epic of My Father My King -- based on the melody of the Jewish prayer Avinu Malkeinu -- which elevates into such blistering noise that we leave the auditorium with our ears ringing, but satiated from what was a performance of magisterial beauty.

By Graham James.