Misery loves company, but if misery comes with glimmers of positivity and a surging bassline and piano, there'll be that much more company. And so the melancholy-plus-uplift formula continues to click for Keane. "You've got no way out of this hole," insists singer Tom Chaplin, only to offer the prospect of "a brighter day". Tim Rice-Oxley's piano starts pumping, the crowd's arms go up; Keane are on their way.

The group are back to piano-pounding anthems on their new No 1 album, Strangeland, after a synthesiser blip with 2008's Perfect Symmetry, and this gig offers business as usual, conducted with ruthless efficiency. Bass drums pound; Chaplin may be "alone and afraid" but he sounds cheery about it, especially as his singing is twice as loud as the band.

Although Chaplin's stagecraft (punching the air, touching his heart) is straight from the Simple Minds manual of arena-rock posturing, he's a good sport and connects with the crowd. "I don't wanna be a crap southern twat, but I can't understand a word you say," he chuckles at the Geordie masses, before trying on a hurled shoe.

The gig's progression is charted by the demeanour of Rice-Oxley, the band's chief writer: from sitting at the piano to kicking away the stool and actually playing on one leg. His songs may be heavy on cliches ("radio on, wheels in motion") and platitudes, but their choruses will not be denied. Somewhere Only We Know turns mortality into a singalong. The new, undeniably stirring Silenced by the Night and Sovereign Light Cafe channel an inner Springsteen.

"You and I are gonna rise again," wails Chaplin, and a thousand air-punching arms agree.