As sad as I was to see the end of the Oxford Zodiac as we know it this week, it did mean something I never thought possible: Built To Spill are instead playing The Fez. On exactly the same spot where I moshed to Rage Against The Machine as an undernourished teenager now stands Doug Martsch.

In a scruffy Up Records t-shirt, full beard and with baldness encroaching, the Built To Spill frontman doesn’t look like he’s about to rock my world, but in stark contrast to Yeltsin - tonight’s support band who had immaculate hair but sounded like The Cribs without the melody - our headline act don’t care so much about appearance. Hell, they even set up most of their own equipment pre-show, and rather than leave the stage to build the atmosphere they just stand or sit around, glaring over to the soundman until he cuts the music so they can start the show.

This lack of showmanship from the Idaho bunch – expanded from a quartet to a five-piece for the live show via the addition of chain-smoking third guitarist Brett Netson, who spends much of his time seemingly in a daze – extends fully into the live show: there’s little communication between band and audience unless it’s really essential, no banter nor stories, and even when Martsch has to change a battery in his pedal after opener ‘Liar’ it takes a good minute of awkward murmurings before Netson approaches the microphone. Even whilst they’re playing, watching five guys rooted to the spot would be an underwhelming experience were it not for the important part: the music is close to perfect.

With a well-balanced set comprising material from all six studio albums, tonight’s set takes in both the upbeat and the down-tempo; covering both their pop songs and their epic eight-minuters, their twentieth century pop classics like ‘Big Dipper’ and an extended ‘Center of the Universe’ mixing with lengthier numbers like ‘Goin’ Against Your Mind’ and tonight’s encore ‘Randy Described Eternity’. With a sound fluctuating between the indie-pop of Guided By Voices and instrumental-based post-rock leanings, their most distinguishing feature is the high reedy tone of Martsch himself, one which pre-dates the similar sound of both Jason Lytle (ex of Grandaddy) and Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock.

The two loudest reactions arrive for ‘Car’ and set-closer ‘Carry The Zero’, the first of which is stripped back from its layered, beat-driven approach on record to become tender, drum-less with all the instrumental breaks removed so just the lyrical song itself remains. The latter song, meanwhile, brings the night’s one massive hurrah in unison from a crowd who’ve been heckling for it since the beginning, starting life as a series of simple chords from a lone guitar and gradually building from a jangling, conventional indie number into a full-bodied, driving instrumental rock-out to close.

For a while, though, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m not welcome here. There are so few smiles onstage, and the crowd themselves are so rarely acknowledged by the band that at first I don’t think Built To Spill really want to be here tonight. But I’m wrong. Post-encore, Martsch sticks around shaking hands, smiling, talking to the front rows as the band pack up and event security unsuccessfully try and coax the wide-eyed attendees to leave the room so the club’s techno-house-whatever night can begin. Yes, this band do care.

As the fresh convert standing next to me, who just wandered in hearing there was a gig on tonight, so eloquently puts it: “They don’t want you to love them, they just want you to fucking listen”.