Alfie walk a fine line between being one of indie pop's cherished secrets and becoming a harmless joke with a cult following. At ULU, singer Lee Gorton wanders around the stage like a playground heartbreaker at a school reunion: awkward and embarrassed by the atmosphere of familiarity, but unable to hide the sly confidence that springs from adoration. As the basic indie intro of No Need swings into a swirling retro stomp, he ditches the nice, northern-boy act for that of the misunderstood and misplaced messiah, looking to confound rather than merely amuse.
Yet the band's contradictory nature and unswerving vision undeniably feeds upon their sense of humour. A Manchester band with a folk heart, a pop soul and a baggy mentality, they bristle with enough bravado to stick a cello and a trumpet next to a singer gifted with Tim Burgess's homespun, easy charm and Ian Brown's light touch and vocal quirks. Thanks to their association with Badly Drawn Boy, they have garnered an uneasy credibility, but it is their sheer bloody-mindedness that has sustained them.
Faced with a few technical hitches, too many friendly faces and their tendency to be just a little too laid-back - Gorton is just as content to identify the childhood photos beamed on a backdrop as he is to sing - it's surprising that they get round to the music at all. When they do play, it's new material from their forthcoming third album that fires them up.
Having subverted their trademark gentle nostalgia for some psychedelic, though still whimsical, multi-textured rock, Alfie sound harder, with Gorton revealing a more powerful and urgent vocal style. He is, however, a little bit bitter. "We're gonna play something you hopefully might know," he says, rolling his eyes in frustration.
Indoor League of People shimmers with a soft elegance, while Umlaut is a fragmented dream with a slight swagger. Alfie's perfectly blended harmonies are peerless. Although the jangle of new single People - all breezy melody and whirling keyboard bleeps - is as radio-friendly as it gets, if Alfie want their material to get the attention it deserves, they need to get serious.
· At Brighton Pavilion (01273 290900) on Sunday.
