NEW YORK’S Daddy Long Legs descended on the depths of Hackney to play two sold-out shows as part of a worldwide tour in a vintage clothing shop by day and a bar-cum-club and general hangout by night.

Daddy Long Legs are right at home in front of a packed house in what’s an unusual venue, with guitarist Murat Akturk, looking like the long-lost brother of Johnny Marr, getting sounds from his guitar that set the scene, while Josh Styles on drums and maracas — sometimes on both at the same time — could’ve walked straight out of the 1960s.

Complementing his retro look, lead singer and harmonica player Brian Hurd, dressed like a 1950s rockabilly undertaker, brings it all together as he hollers, shouts and sings through an old-school microphone.

The 90-minute set combines foot-stomping, glittering rock’n’roll guitar, more harmonica than you could shake a stick at and a beat that reverberates to your core and forces you to move in time to the music.

There are  dark lyrics aplenty and slide guitar that hits the spot, all anchored by Styles’s repetitive, pounding and visceral drum beat that allows Hurd’s harmonica or voice to guide the audience into Daddy Long Legs’ web.

Strolling through songs Evil Eye and Bad Neighbourhood to Glad Rag Ball — by the end people were definitely having one — there’s a hint of darkness and decadence in all that they do.

Less schlocky than The Cramps, they’re more barnstorming than a ceilidh and their energy is driven by too many darkened nights in basement bars hanging out with the wrong type of crowd.

Punk-like in its challenge to convention, this is rock’n’roll at its rawest and blues at its most desperate and it all hangs together like a Savile Row suit — or whatever the New York equivalent is.

Long may Daddy Long Legs roll.