OK, everyone knows Feeder's story for the past year. It doesn't need to be rehashed. That said, it'd be all too easy to give them the sympathy card and talk about how well they're coping with the death of their drummer Jon Lee, and how the music reflects that. Etc. It'd be easier still to dismiss them on the same grounds.

It'd be pretty narrowminded though. It's hard to know what to expect from tonight's gig, an intimate session at London's Garage for XFM. Will it be a greatest hits parade, wheeling out the old faves for the fans? Or a promotional surge for the new album? Of the two, it's more like the second option, but without the cynicism that might suggest. There's..what.. two or three songs off their breakthrough second album, 'Yesterday Went Too Soon'? Unsurprisingly the boisterous and brilliant 'Insomnia' is rattled out within minutes of Feeder's appearance. One song off their debut album [again, lighters-in-the-air crowdpleaser 'High']? The rest is all very recent stuff, either gleaned from their previous record, or picked to showcase the new album,'Comfort In Sound'.

As a longtime Feeder fan, I loved the old stuff, and dislike the new stuff. Stereotypical 'fan' attitude but the best cliches are all true. But something unexpected happens. The songs that sounded sterile and papery on record, the singles that bled with banality, the new 'crowd favourites' that sounded like Stereophonics songs when aired at Reading this year - they all come alive. Fuck knows how this is happening, but... this works. And it's got fuck all to do with that most revered quality-gig element, the atmosphere - this is down to the band. Within ten minutes it becomes clear what The Critics meant by Feeder finding a more 'mature' sound with their new album - they didn't mean they'd gotten fusty and safe - they meant they'd grown up. They're still the same kind of songs, from the same songwriter - searching, powerful songs that could, at their climax, make your heart pop through your ribcage.

And yes, they've slowed down a bit, and the grungy exterior of former years has been replaced by a shiny pop veneer - but the substance remains the same, and they've not forgotten how to rock - 'Godzilla' is a messy collision of jagged riffs and pummelling choruses. I thought I'd be spending the gig jigging around politely at the back - two songs in, I'm getting shoved around at the front. No-one's here out of 'sympathy' or 'respect' - they're here because despite the condescending, sniffy attitude they've taken over the years from cooler-than-thou types, Feeder have still got it - the ability not only to write magic, speeding pop tunes, but also to make you feel, to grin and dance and sweat and jerk and twist to their songs until your legs turn to jelly.