Bands and their handlers don’t take anything for granted these days. And for Kaiser Chiefs, with their third album, Off With Their Heads, about to reach the shops, it must feel a bit like starting all over again. Finding themselves back in small venues, with a bunch of new songs to play to their most ardent fans, it is a time of adventure and renewal, albeit tinged with a certain apprehension.

The band’s hyperactive frontman, Ricky Wilson, was comparatively subdued at their Southampton gig. Sure, he fought his way through the crowd to the sound desk and back again during Take My Temperature, but even James Blunt does that nowadays. Wilson, now 30, also made an extravagant display of ripping down a couple of “No Crowd Surfing” signs from either side of the stage. But for the most part he concentrated on singing the songs, and musically, the performance was all the better for it.

Beginning with Spanish Metal and Never Miss a Beat, they demonstrated their continuing knack of combining wry observational humour with insanely catchy tunes. “It’s cool to know nothing,” Wilson sang, one of those infectious kids’ anthems that you hope will be received with the same irony that was implicit in its delivery. Like It Too Much had a pugnacious feel, but missed the string arrangement of the recorded version. The buzzy, electro-rock of You Want History worked better with its banging dancefloor beat and swirling harmonies. But best of all was Half the Truth, a song driven by a chunky rock riff that really came into its own in the live setting.

While the new numbers energised the band and lent fresh impetus to the show, it was a generous complement of older favourites, including Modern Way, Ruby and Everyday I Love You Less and Less, that drove the audience to greater heights. A particularly robust version of The Angry Mob was played out in a dramatic pool of blood-red lights, although the lighting in general was a mixed blessing. With a great bank of white squares glaring from behind the band with retina- searing intensity for much of the show, the net effect was to illuminate the audience far more effectively than the band, while raising the temperature to suffocating extremes as they ended with Oh My God and a roaring encore of I Predict a Riot.

Barrowland, Glasgow, tonight; De Montford Hall, Leicester, Sun; Forum, London, NW5, Mon & Tue

Click here to find tickets for Kaiser Chiefs Tickets

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010