This was a crucial performance for the extraordinary band of paraplegics who found international success after eking out a living on the streets of Kinshasa. When I first met Staff Benda Bilili in the Congolese capital five years ago, they were playing in run-down bars and rehearsing in the zoo, while their leader Ricky Likabu survived by selling cigarettes outside the market from his wheelchair. Three years later, they were headlining a Prom at the Albert Hall. But what had seemed a heartening story of hardship to success then went horribly wrong.

Rows over management and money led to the departure of several members, including the guitarist, singer and song-writer Coco Ngambali. Now a new lineup of the band were in London for the first time, not to promote a new album but to show that Staff Benda Bilili still exist. Remarkably, they sounded slicker and more attacking than ever.

The front line still consists of four musicians who use wheelchairs, including Likabu, along with another singer on crutches, while behind them were five non-disabled players, including Roger Landu, a former street child, playing his homemade one-stringed satonge, constructed from a tin can, and crucial to the band's sound. They started quietly, but by the third song, Mutu Esalaka, the audience were out of the pews and on their feet.

The improvements were partly down to Landu, once considered something of a wild card in the band. His playing was more controlled than before, and he coaxed remarkable noises from his DIY instrument, while dancing, acting as MC or providing impressive lead vocals. There were fewer wheelchair theatrics than before, but the energy and musicianship were impressive, with up to nine members of the band providing the vocals, driven on by new percussionists as they switched from soukous and a dash of reggae to funky African R&B. Welcome back.

• At DaDa festival, Liverpool (0151 709 3789) on 6 December.