There's an odd dichotomy at the heart of Doves the live band. For the uninitiated, they make one unholy racket (in a very, very good way) for a trio (yes, I know they have a keyboard player, but you know what I mean). They make a mockery of some of the lazy comparisons that get made between them and some, well, lazy bands. It's not my intention to further these comparisons, so I won’t mention Snow Patrol or Starsailor by name. And yet, probably caused by a mixture of pushing the sound to the limit and maybe needing to get some new roadies, their sound fucks up. Nearly every time. Already delayed, the band shuffled on, introduced themselves via a Dick Van Dyke standard cockernee impression from Jimi, and promptly left the stage again, with Goodwin mumbling something about “being back in a bit”. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the Knight Rider theme music played by Jimi and Rebelski to keep us amused as at Glasgow earlier in the tour; we were just left waiting. Ten minutes later, they walked back on. Without wishing to make this sound like Rocky, a special performance was needed to assuage the tetchy crowd. Did anyone truly doubt they’d pull it off? Two minutes into the sparse, brooding groove of Jetstream, two things became clear:

i) Doves really are a quite exceptional live band
ii) Their new album has hitherto unheard balls. 'The Outsiders', for example, is walls of massive, droning Jason Pierce guitars and a monotone vocal that radiates as much menace as a big cuddly bear like Jimi Goodwin can muster.

Not that Doves have forgotten their stock in trade moments of delicate beauty. '10:03' and the hammond swathed 'Winter Hill' literally shimmered - I of course mean 'literally' in the Jamie Redknapp sense of not actually understanding the meaning of the word - both John Leckie produced on the forthcoming Kingdom of Rust, they seem certain to join the ranks of their best loved songs.

So then, including 'The Greatest Denier' and a version of 'Kingdom of Rust' that actually upped the country 'n' western drama of the single version, they played half the new LP. It's going to be special, of that there is no doubt. Unfortunately, as is often the case with pre-album tours such as this, the crowd didn't really know how to react to so much largely unheard material. It was left therefore to the big guns to raise an at times funereal bunch. A breakneck 'Black and White Town' was riotous, while the traditional instrument swapping (they're so multi-talented they frankly make me want to puke) of 'Here It Comes' uplifted in all the right places.

Unfortunately, the encore was somewhat marred by the sound: Goodwin seemed as pissed off as a big cuddly bear can be as 'Snowden' occasionally distorted, while 'There Goes The Fear', as euphoric a moment as it always is, was played as if the band were battling against imminent curfew. All in all though, a special night courtesy of a special band. Now they just need the roadies to match..