Sales have never been a problem for Kasabian, and the Leicester band’s reputation as a formidable, rabble-rousing live act was confirmed by this relatively intimate show for 3,000 iTunes competition winners.

But with this week’s Mercury Prize nomination for their third album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, they also got some credibility, as well as a ringing endorsement from main Mercury judge and current holder of the Tovey Chair of Music at Edinburgh University, Simon Frith.

The cinematic, souped up psychedelia of opener Underdog suggested Professor Frith was spot on to praise the group’s artistic development. Yet even the blustering Shoot the Runner from their previous album had a pounding insistence in a live setting.

Gallery: Kasabian at thr Roundhouse

It helps that Kasabian look like a rock band. Guitarist Serge Pizzorno wore a bandana and stooped over a microphone to deliver the occasional vocal, while long-haired frontman Tom Meighan supplied a stream of crafty winks and dramatic gesticulations with the gusto of an unrelenting market trader.

Meighan commanded audience singalongs for early hits Cutt Off and Processed Beats, although crucially the group never seemed to have to strain to get a big reaction — it felt natural, if not quite effortless. Perhaps their only major weakness was a habit for musical interludes that hinted at a formative exposure to prog-rock.
The show rarely dipped, though, and when it threatened to do so Meighan simply demanded to “see your ****ing hands”.

This set also introduced some inventive new songwriting, such as the droning Swarfiga and the breezy Thick as Thieves, which featured trumpet and acoustic guitar.

Ultimately, though, the fans favoured the frenetic comeback single Fire and the brilliantly gibberish Vlad the Impaler, with its lyrics amended to include the line “Michael Jackson, see you on the other side”.

For the finale of LSF, Meighan was even confidently asking “You ready?” as he teed up the crowd to sing the anthemic chorus.

Swaggering and cocksure, Kasabian may be too obvious a choice to win the Mercury. But that’s unlikely to trouble a band who are already booked to play two nights at Wembley Arena in November.