There are many bands you might expect to begin their shows with an audacious pyrotechnical stunt, but Ash probably wouldn't be one of them. It's as good as given that Justin Hawkins will stride on stage brandishing a burning guitar, but since when did tiny Tim Wheeler, a judge's son from Downpatrick, become a swashbuckling rock god? Is this barrel-chested, tight-jeaned, Henry Rollins-flavoured hot dog really the same romantic Irish lad who once sang about girls still in their school skirts and summer blouses?

You betcha. He's even wearing the T-shirt to prove it - 1977 reads the lettering, a reference to Ash's fuzzily brilliant debut LP, which paid homage to both Wheeler and bassist Mark Hamilton's birth year and the release of the first Star Wars film. This is the pleasing thing about Ash: they've moved on, as testified by the guitar-heavy sound of their latest album, Meltdown, but they're not afraid to go back.

To prove it, for every new song they play tonight, a nostalgia-happy oldie is thrown into the mix. Girl From Mars, Oh Yeah (of summer blouse fame) and Kung Fu are early highlights, as well as the later, but equally tuneful, Shining Light and Burn Baby Burn from the album Free All Angels. Less easy on the eardrums are recent tracks such as Out of the Blue and Detonator, which favour noise over melody and lack the singalong choruses of the Ash greats.

As the evening is part of Kerrang's "inspired by" series, Ash play a couple of "inspirational" covers they clearly haven't really thought about. Dedicating Teenage Kicks to John Peel and the Undertones is a nice, if predictable, gesture, and any regular Radio 1 listeners will already be familiar with their version of The Boys Are Back in Town. Where's the inspiration in that?