Caught Live: Q Now - The Sessions Presents... Howler + Zulu Winter + Man Made @ XOYO, London

Onstage stands a young man, Telecaster in hand. His early-nineties grunge hair sweeps across his face, a stark contrast to the shimmering golden jacket he is wearing. This is Man Made, a nineteen year-old songwriter from Manchester. He's also known as Nile Marr – yes, Johnny Marr’s son – but Man Made is very much his own man. Tonight his voice carries clearly across the room, reminiscent at times of both Kurt Cobain's snarl and the delivery of another singer with a famous father: Jeff Buckley. In the background his guitar-playing (and that is his vocals' only accompaniment) is powerfully electric and vibrant.

As warm-up acts go, Man Made is certainly interesting, and clearly a young man with a lot of potential. It's a slight shame, then, that some of his verses have a tendency to drift away just as it feels like they might be building towards something great. One to keep an eye on nonetheless.

Up next are Zulu Winter. Already being hailed as the 'next next Vaccines' (sic.) in hype-making circles, the five Londoners stroll onstage looking like a cross between a dormant Soviet spy cell and extras from Downton Abbey. Then they begin to play... Try, if you can, to think of every band you've ever listened to, good or bad. Now try and work out the exact mean average of all those groups. Sound like it could be alright? Well, it is. Sort of.

Zulu Winter meander through a set that pitches them somewhere between White Lies and Yeasayer; although hard to really 'fault', their live game – on tonight's evidence at least – lacks a cutting edge, a grab. Whatever the reasons may be for these shortcomings, the fact that they've only been together for less than a year is plainly evident this evening. Their audience interaction is non-existent for starters, and it quickly becomes clear that whatever power tracks like 'Let's Move Back To Front' and forthcoming single 'We Should Be Swimming' may hold on record has been lost somewhere between studio and stage. "We’re really sorry about the feedback," mumbles gaunt singer Will Daunt as their set draws to a close. That there was any feedback at all seems to have gone largely unnoticed by the XOYO crowd.

And so on to the headliners, the real 'next Vaccines': Howler. You'll already know the skinny on the Minneapolis outfit if you scanned any of those 'Set to Go Stratospheric in 2012!' lists from a few months back. In short, Very Big Things are expected from these Rough Trade signees. They clearly know it, too, swaggering onstage tonight as the bright new things of garage rock. Someone affectionately throws a pint of beer towards Jordan Gatesmith and his bandmates, though the gesture is taken as an offence - it might have ruined their industry-approved scruffy attire, after all.

Previous comparisons with The Strokes prove well-founded from the off: pacey guitar workouts delivered with arrogance and energy are Howler's stock-in-trade. There's a bit more punk about them, however, than there ever has been with their New York cousins. 'Wailing (Making Out)' – a song formerly known as 'You Like White Women, I Like Cigarettes' – nonchalantly rattles off a checklist of young deviants' wants in life, offering a grizzled, gravel-voiced tour through the psyche of the young.

This lively punk edge leads to riotous dancing at the front, although many others in the audience seem more standoffish, unsure what to make of the mixture of beat-up aggression, twangy blues and populist "OooOooooWoooaaahhh"s (see the admittedly-rather-catchy 'Back of Your Neck' for further details). There seems little doubt that these guys will go on to sell a decent number of records; quite how long more they'll continue to pique the tastemakers' interest for, however, is harder to say. When the hype inevitably dies down, it’s tough to remain a 'fresh'-sounding band when you haven’t really got anything new to offer.

Tonight's showcase ends on a slightly comical note: as the headliners reach the end of their set the XOYO crowd begins to shuffle off into the night, only for confusion to descend as Gatesmith and co. return for an unrequested encore. Half the audience remains, while the other half continues moving towards the exits. Sadly for Howler, there will likely be another twenty bands just like them set to emerge this year. And truth be told, Londoners will probably remember this gig more for Johnny Marr's son than for the confirmation that, yes, Howler are just about okay.

Howler's debut LP, America Give Up, is out now.

Go here to view a gallery of Richard Gray's live shots from XOYO, featuring all three bands in action.