Bloc Party’s rise from obscurity began exactly two years ago after Alex Kapranos invited them to support Franz Ferdinand at a gig in North London. Half a million album sales and a Mercury Music Prize nomination later, the London quartet have become a pillar of the New Britpop establishment. And they certainly put on a hometown show befitting their status. Making a deceptively gentle start with So Here We Are, they exploded into action with a sudden spasm of noise and white lights.

As they accelerated with a burst of Positive Tension, the frontman Kele Okereke hacked at his guitar with quick, aggressive thrusts while ranting and rapping about everything and nothing in particular. “Things replace things/ Days replace days/ Things replace things,” he yelled with apparently meaningful conviction. Matt Tong hammered out a long drum intro and the mercury shot up the glass as they took off with their best song, Banquet, a number with a propulsive, circular riff that always reminds me of the Police’s Message in a Bottle.

It was all very purposeful and cleverly organised, and the 5,000 fans crammed into the building certainly responded with rowdy enthusiasm. But the band’s musical formula seemed to have been pieced together like a jigsaw. There was a touch of Franz Ferdinand’s art-school angularity here, a bit of Muse’s heavy-rock mannerisms there. And all of it was guided by that what’s-the-cleverest-thing-we-can-do-next? style of pop songwriting so beloved by the class of 2005. XTC have a lot to answer for.

This Modern Love did, at least, offer a momentary variation, although it too ended in a burst of speed and a barrage of strobes. And as they reached the home straight with Like Eating Glass and Helicopter it just got speedier and strobier, as if they were performing for a crowd with attention deficit disorder.

Pop has become an evolved art form, but there is a delicate balance between hard rocking and hard thinking. Liam Gallagher’s gibe about Bloc Party looking like contestants on University Challenge was unfair, but it has stuck. While their quest for excellence was not in doubt, this was a show which fell short of greatness.

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