The Mountain Goats have done a pretty decent job dismantling the myth that all concept albums are flabby and self-indulgent with their wrestling-inspired Beat The Champ.

This evening’s live versions of the proud and defiant The Ballad Of Bull Ramos, jubilant sing-a-long Foreign Object and the tender Animal Mask should all be filed away in the concept album’s defence brief.

Frontman John Darnielle explained the success of the album’s portrayal of blue collar life on the night simply by saying “everything that happens in wrestling happens in real life” and his passion speaking about territorial wrestling made it clear how much more the subject is to him than just a clever hook for an album.

Darnielle, looking like John Oliver’s geekier brother, was a charismatic frontman, wise-cracking and beaming a smile throughout. He made genuine connections with crowd members, most notably on a wander through the crowd during the rousing No Children.

It was a two-way love-in with an adoring crowd that has devotedly followed this most cult-ish of bands from Darnielle’s bedroom recording days, rowdily signing along to the anthemic This Year but holding a sustained reverential hush at the close of Eziekel 7.

It was fan loyalty inspired by a band far more real and authentic than Hulk Hogan’s hair colour.

Four stars