First the Coral stirred southern blues into their eccentric Merseybeat melodies; now their American counterparts, the Features, are returning the favour. With a modern, twisted take on old-fashioned rock'n'roll, their songs blend impassioned preaching with sentimentality. But while those cosmic Scousers are laid-back at best, the Features play with a fervour that verges on maniacal.

That desperation may stem from their having spent six years filtering bluegrass through first-generation Britpop in local bars and clubs. But the band's soon-to-be-released debut album, Exhibit A, is worth the wait. A dazzling romp through Buzzcocks-like spiky pop and agitated soul reminiscent of the Animals, it's a short, sharp shock destined to put their famous fans and fellow barnstormers, Kings of Leon, in the shade.

Yet at the Monarch, the band appear less than impressed. Drummer Rollum Haas sits slouching and scowling. Parrish Yaw vacantly tinkers with his keyboards, while Roger Dabbs broods over his bass. But it is singer and guitarist Matt Pelham who seems most at odds with his surroundings. Wearing a shirt and tank T-shirt combination that even Jarvis Cocker might find troubling, he looks like an anxious librarian.

However, he sings like a demon. Shaking with nervous energy, his voice trembling with barely contained fury, he barks, yells and screams the tenderest of words. "I know you have suspicions, so I'll prove my love to you," he sings in the album's title track, before bunny-hopping to the dark, stomping rhythm. Watching the Features is like getting caught up in a Kansas tornado: they pick you up in a whirl, fill your head with blazing Technicolour emotions, then throw you to the ground. Rhythms shudder and change, moods swell and burst in time to the retro keyboards and razor-sharp guitars. Leave It All Behind and Temporary Blues are sinister anthems. Powerful and poignant, the Features are are difficult to ignore.