Gig played on 26/04/06

It's easy to knock The Zutons. Scousers, but not "mystic" like labelmates The Coral; a propensity for dressing up like zombies and an all-round general lack of seriousness. In critic land they're perennially labelled as the festival goer's second or third favourite band, although this seemingly hasn't sunk in with the wider British public, who continue to buy their records by the truckload. Mercury-nominated debut album "Who Killed The Zutons?" has gone on to sell 600,000 copies, while the follow-up, "Tired Of Hanging Around" recently gatecrashed the charts at number two - both resoundingly more impressive achievements than, say, Babyshambles.

They're a good deal more fun too - and fun is at the heart of The Zutons live experience, an environment which is probably their most natural. Essentially, this is a pop band in the most classic tradition (as in T Rex or Madness) - unafraid to make hilariously ambitious videos (such as the "West Side Story" parody of "Why Won't You Give Me Your Love?") or drop darker subtexts into the euphoric mix of their music, like the itchingly paranoid "Someone Watching Over Me". Onstage, Dave McCabe is obviously the ringleader. A swamp-voiced centre-point, calling the musical shots and urging his bandmates onwards, but in saxophonist Abi Harding he has a welcome and glamorous foil.

A saxophone, when obliged to use it in every song, becomes a bit of an albatross, but Harding's impressive backing vocals have given The Zutons another dimension, particularly on the bittersweet duet (about stalking) "You've Got A Friend In Me". Stalking seems to recur in a lot of McCabe's songs these days - either he's been taking John Fowles doomed document to unrequited love, "The Collector" a bit too literally, or someone should consider calling the police. The references to rodent's tails in "Why Won't You…" are particularly disturbing.

Of course, there are limitations to The Zutons' metronomic sound, but with the new material so instantly recognizable and combined with old classics such as "Pressure Point", "You Will, You Won't" and a mighty "Don't Ever Think (Too Much)", they know how to ignite a crowd. Despite concluding proceedings perversely with the sprawling instrumental pun-tastic car park jam of "Zutonkhaarmuun", they are generally drilled more tightly than the Royal Engineers.

All in, it's an exhilarating hour and a bit. While the UK media pores over that "classic" Dirty Pretty Things debut, The Zutons shimmy on: out of step, but always in time - one of the best live bands in the UK, expect to witness them in a field this summer sometime soon.

by Adam Webb