For the first time in their career, Kaiser Chiefs are struggling. Their third album, Off With Their Heads, has brought their seemingly unstoppable rise to a juddering halt; next February/March’s arena tour is struggling to sell out and last night, on behalf of a minor radio station and Oxfam, they found themselves headlining the sort of venue they ought to have left behind.

They had only 50 minutes, so they mixed’n’matched old and new and there are no prizes (apart from vocalist Ricky Wilson hurled into the crowd during a frenzied Oh My God) for guessing which went down best. “There’s got to be more enthusiasm,” Wilson pleaded after the new Good Days Bad Days. Yet, not everything is quite as straightforward as it seems and rumours of an artistic demise are wide of the mark. The new songs, notably Half The Truth and Never Miss A Beat, are every bit as vibrant as the old; they’re just more of the same. And there the problem lies.

Still, Wilson flung himself into the crowd for Take My Temperature and, for all its over-familiarity, I’d forgotten just how thrilling I Predict A Riot can be and just how beguilingly peculiar The Angry Mob is. They may be stumbling, but surely they won’t fall.

Earlier, Iglu And Hartly were silly, camp and, for Californians, surprisingly lovable. The crowd sang along to their finest moment, In This City, and swayed to numerous A‑ha‑esque, sweeping synthesiser solos. They might just be a good outside bet.

Before Kaiser Chiefs, The Rifles swapped all the joy, excitement and energy of pop music for some mundane indie plod, but they did leave us with a cheery, festive version of Phil Spector’s Sleigh Ride, which was sweet of them.