"This is our first night," says Brendan Benson. "So I'm sorry if it sounds a little rough." The man onstage - who, with his sloppy jumper and vague good looks, resembles an extra from Friends - proceeds to fluff a few intros, forget his lines and respond half-heartedly to a heckler.

This lack of assurance does not help the gig's flow and, perhaps as a consequence, Benson sometimes seems a little removed from his own back catalogue. This is a shame, because much of the three albums he has made over the last 10 years is very good indeed. Whether the punkish singer-songwriter's decent forthcoming album, The Alternative to Love, gives him the success his accessible but intelligent guitar sound arguably merits remains to be seen. Poppy melodics and tough guitars combine, woozy synths are dragged behind up-tempo rhythms and lovelorn acoustic laments build into loping instrumental grooves, while Benson sings of girls and unhappiness. It is a foot-tapping but ballsy sound, charming but never twee: the sort of music that ruffles your hair as it slaps you about the chops.

He and his band leave the stage a little too soon but a new Benson, bold and intense, reappears for the encore. Piano-led new song Biggest Fan is stately and bittersweet, while the classic You're Quiet comes with a gleaming, crunchy little riff and an infectious energy rush. He rushes off, leaving the crowd to applaud an empty stage, but the impression that this might just be Benson's moment remains.

· At the Sugarmill, Stoke (0871 2302 623), tonight. Then touring.