Lighting up a dank east London basement, Ecca Vandal proves that she's got the songs, the skills, the attitude and the aura to become alt.rock's next 'new' star

If you search on YouTube, there's a seven year old video of Ecca Vandal brilliantly covering Rihanna's Bitch Better Have My Money (with a bonus coda involving Kelis' Milkshake) for Australian radio station Triple J's Like A Version series. We bring this up not simply to illustrate the South Africa-born, Melbourne-based singer's vocal dexterity, and excellent taste in music, but to point out that although she's still very much an emerging artist, Vandal hasn't been fast-tracked for success, and has already put in hard yards: in fact, her earliest singles emerged a full ten years ago.

Having just performed at Reading and Leeds festivals, there's no real need for Vandal to be playing two nights at the 150-capacity Sebright Arms, but we're glad that she chose to do so. When she first emerged, the singer cited the likes of Bjork, Mr. Bungle, Fugazi and Deftones as influences, and while you'd be hard-pressed to hear elements of those artists in the succinct alt. hip-hop of Then There's One, or the fabulously raging pop-punk of Bleed But Never Die, those inspirations speak to her ambitions to follow her own path as an artist, shunning obvious or more easily-accessible routes to success.

She's a wonderfully dynamic, effervescent performer too, in-your-face and boundlessly energetic, holding the attention of everyone in the room from the moment she appears on this east London basement venue's non-stage, and retaining it throughout an all-action set.

Fred Durst has taken Vandal under his wing, having brought her on tour in Europe with Limp Bizkit earlier this year, regularly inviting her onstage, and back in April the singer shared a 'pinch me' moment on Instagram, revealing that she'd been jamming with Wes Borland and Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk at the legendary Rancho de la Luna studio in Joshua Tree, California. All of which suggests that Vandal isn't nervous or awed about the prospect of stepping up into the big leagues. Nights like this - and songs as good as the superb, utterly infectious Cruising To Self Soothe - suggest that she's more than ready.

The music business is notoriously cruel and fickle, but it'd be great to see her given the opportunity to shoot her shot.