It says something about the elusivity of Neutral Milk Hotel that their singer, Jeff Mangum, essentially disappeared for three years following their much-eulogised second album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, in 1998.

Back then, he returned with an album of Bulgarian folk music. But 13 years on Mangum has replaced the boyish grin and floppy hair with a beard and trucker cap and the cult-like indie band's fanbase has been rewarded with a tour to match the life-affirming energy of that record.

Emerging to the dreamy conceptualism of King Of Carrot Flowers Part 1, Mangum and his bandmates – not least guitarist Julian Koster, who strummed and spun his way through the middle of the stage like an imp dressed as the sun – beamed clattering, fuzzy joy.

Most of the songs, including a zipwire A Baby for Pree, were played too fast by a band racing to condense their biblically convoluted lyrics into 80 minutes.

A piercingly immaculate rendition of Two Headed Boy segued seamlessly into a reprise of horns and accordions, and the crushing lament that is Oh Comely got the solemn pace it deserved, before accelerating into the honking Song Against Sex. Remarkable and thrilling.