No fanfare, just a fair few fans: Ezra Furman live in Brighton

During the course of tonight's hour and a half long performance (18 February, Concorde 2, Brighton) Furman proves to be the complete opposite of an ideal candidate for a pop star, and is all the better for it. He slowly walks out from behind the curtain and onto the stage with little fuss before strumming out some heavily reverbed chords, his band mates The Boyfriends following nonchanalty behind one by one until the point where the're ready to jump forth into action. No fanfare - just great songs, such as the snap heeled opener “Restless Year”, a potent brew of American-rooted punk and snarled out vocals that show the hallmarks of a band let off the leash and allowed to run at will.

A good percentage of the lyrical themes here are timeless, and the roots of the music have at least one foot in the past too. Comparisons to Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground are common, but they carry much weight; it'd be difficult to imagine Ezra being in front of us without them having gone before. But if their influence lingers, it’s because Furman's taken the baton and has sought to run on with it. Raw and oozing with passion, those same '60s vibes reappear on "Caroline Jones", where a stop/start guitar rhythm punctuate the steady beats and solidifying bass.

Perhaps surprisingly considering his healthy back catalogue, tonight also sees the unfurling of a version of Nirvana's "In Bloom" that The Boyfriends give a distinctive makeover, celebrating the joy and not just the pain and angst that all beat simultaneously at the heart of the original. It was only a temporary look back, as a new song - "Teddy, I'm Ready" - quickly followed, a pretty but straightfoward number that doesn't yet hit home quite so hard as the rest of the set.

The skiffle beat, vibrant punk saxophone and loose barbershop quartet style vocals add another welcome texture to the Jonathan Richman spirit of "Potholes", but its previous singles "My Zero" and "Lousy Connection" that receive the biggest reaction. Elsewhere, "Walk On In Darkness" sounds like a fully roused Pixies fighting with Fat White Family and is a slight step toward the present in comparison to much of Ezra's material.

What lies at the heart of Ezra Furman's music and performance is a rich rock ‘n’ roll spirit. Not happy to fall between regimented lines, it instead seeks to shake things up, and the effect is heavily aided by Ezra’s ability as a showman; he’s a natural born ringleader who excels at punctuating the breaks between songs with wit and black humour. He's a frontman who oozes personality, and when combined with such a stockpile of instantly catchy guitar pop as this, it makes for an artist capable of seducing an audience at will.