After an interminable wait, the band began with Instant Crush, Casablancas’s collaboration with Daft Punk and the only thing resembling a hit on show. The ghost of Spinal Tap stalked Xerox, a near-unlistenable track based around a maddening guitar figure and Casablancas’s distorted vocals, while Father Electricity veered left into Afrobeat. Yet, for all that M.utually A.ssured D.estruction sounded like the kind of music they use to “soften up” prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, there were moments of real brilliance. The slow-burning Human Sadness built to an epic crescendo, Where No Eagles Fly was full of punkish menace and Crunch Punch was slinky rock 'n' roll.
