Big music is, apparently, back. Supporters of this claim might point to the success of Keane, or the upcoming return of U2. Yet epic songwriters are bubbling up from the bottom of the pot too: both the Open and impressive piano-led support act, Thirteen Senses, favour the sort of sweeping songs that ruffle your hair and raise your pulse.

Since their debut album The Silent Hours emerged in July, the Open have been attracting some impressive plaudits, not to mention comparisons to the Doves, the Verve and Echo and the Bunnymen.

The Liverpudlian quintet certainly have an ear for the dramatic, coming on to stage to the parp of horns, and launching straight into the wholehearted angst of Bring Me Down. They often seem more interested in each other than the audience, breaking from the front of the stage to play guitar in huddles. Singer Steven Bayley scrapes at his guitar, while his mouth lolls wide and his nostrils flare in a mix of deep concentration and rock-star insolence.

Their music is a little more expressive, with lighter- waving anthems like Just Want to Live rubbing up against stratospheric psychedelia. Indeed, the Open often shift from chart-friendly ballad to prog-soaked workout several times within the same song, drums thudding over writhing solos before a plaintive chorus returns.

It is this fusion of quiet and loud, one senses, that is propelling the Open towards success: it's hard to see any of their more straightforward rock moments bundling their way into the pop charts on pure melodic merit. Bayley's emotional lyrics, meanwhile, impress more for their honesty than their poetry. Yet as a package it works rather neatly, fusing tasty musicianship with a populist touch. They finish with stirring current single Elevation which, while hardly a Coldplay-sized epic, sends the crowd humming happily into the night.

·At the Sugarmill, Stoke-on-Trent (01782 214991), tonight and the Moles Club, Bath (01225 404445), tomorrow, then touring.