Saint Etienne may be victims of their own success. So brilliant are they at producing music akin to the soundtrack of an imaginary movie - all 70s London with heroes in tank tops - that the tunes on their latest album, The Sound of Water, sound like incidental music. This is not a good thing when playing that music live.

From Heart Failed, their next single, through to A Little Overcome, this gig was a monotonous meander through backstreets, rather than a joyous ride in a softtop sports car on the autoroute. Even Like a Motorway failed to get the engines revving.

There is no denying Saint Etienne's contribution to pop music. From their 1989 cover of Neil Young's Only Love Can Break Your Heart to their collaboration with DJ Paul Van Dyk, Tell Me Why, they have been at the forefront of experimentation with musical genres, sliding gracefully between easy listening, trip-hop and samples of old films.

Their blend of influences might be fine in the studio, but live, practically all the nuance of their layered, atmospheric, poised music was lost amid the din, as were many of the lyrics. This may have been just as well: 10 years of recalling the minutiae of everyday life sounds fake-naive.

While Sarah Cracknell could sing a phonebook and it would sound like candyfloss on a sunny day, this talent makes for soothing background Muzak, not a smashing live performance. Always retro before their time, Saint Etienne are now in danger of sounding old hat. Where there should have been swing, there was lacklustre swaying. Where there should have been melancholia, there was an arch smile and trumped-up basslines. Cracknell - who, surprisingly, had all the stage presence of a melting ice pole and was in danger of being upstaged by the backing singer - oscillated like an underwater frond caught in an eddy. Still, it was she, not the music, that provided the audience with a lasting impression of the evening. Sarah Cracknell: she's got lovely hair.

Saint Etienne play Bristol University (0870 444 4000) tonight, then tour.