by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“We all ritually stretch now,” says ¡Forward Russia! drummer Katie Nicholls, memories of aching muscles fresh in her mind. “Tom [Woodhead] warms up his voice, and if I’m really not in the mood, sometimes I’ll put some music on and dance, or just stand in a room by myself and scream.”

Pre-show routines are essential for this young British band, a dance-punk outfit whose debut album, Give Me a Wall, is a response to the flurry of stateside acts who dare to drop the name Gang of Four. Nicholls and company share their hometown of Leeds with their late ’70s/early ’80s forebears, though ¡Forward Russia!’s frenetic angst and upfront guitars set them apart from the DFA-label set and their hordes of followers.

¡Forward Russia!’s critical acclaim and rapidly sprouting international fanbase is the fruit of a lot of hard work, because Leeds isn’t the easiest town to emerge from. Due to a lack of small venues, Nicholls’s brother Sam, credited with “guitar, shouts,” was forced to book ¡Forward Russia! and his previous band in an absolute dive.

“It’s not a particularly rough town, but the Vine was a dodgy place,” says Nicholls. “There were a lot of rough people there, people who would try and stab you.”

Her brother continued to work the venue, despite the threat of violence, which was likely exacerbated by the fact that he was a 19-year-old known as Whiskas—“It’s nothing to do with cat food, or his beard,” insists Nicholls, pointing to Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Samuel Whiskers (about a mouse) as the source of the nickname.

As for the band name, despite their politically savvy lyrics, ¡Forward Russia! was chosen for its striking sound and appearance (complete with nonsensical Spanish punctuation) rather than a preoccupation with Putin country. But that doesn’t mean they don’t keep up with the news.

“I’m a very fussy eater and I’m vegetarian. I don’t think Russians are very good with vegetarian,” remarks Nicholls, pondering a hypothetical dinner invitation from the Kremlin. “Of course, there’s a lot of controversy about whether the Russian government poisoned [Litvenenko]. But I’m always up for free food.”

With Snowden and the Nymphets at Main Hall tonight, Thursday, Nov. 30, 9 p.m., $15

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