Nickelback are a strange creature, a heavy metal band that appears to have credibility with mature metal fans yet still appeal to youngsters.

The Brighton audience were a mixture of nine to 15-year-olds chaperoned by their parents, groups of teenage friends with newly-dyed hair and black nail polish, and couples in their 20s and 30s, looking like characters in a gothic fairytale.

It's strange to see a boy of 14 getting a top-up on his lemonade, standing next to two vampish women in their 20s sipping bourbon, and consider they are going to see the same band - how does that work?

Pretty well, gauging by the ecstatic response from the moment Nickelback made their stagey opening.

A black curtain fell away and suddenly the band were striding manfully around the stage, taking turns to strike macho poses with their guitars on top of elevated speaker stacks.

Fourteen-foot flames erupted spasmodically from the stage and songs were ended on short firework bursts. The leonine lead singer/guitarist Chad Kroeger made the classic heavy metal devil sign about four times during the first song and it was returned each time by the enthusiastic crowd.

From a musical standpoint, the band are impeccable: They play with a precision and verve that truly deserves their audience's affection.

Their sound combines the most successful innovations in metal - the brutal rhythm guitar of Metallica, the deep, neurotic bass of Nine Inch Nails and a flamboyant, bass-heavy drumming reminiscent of Queens of the Stone Age.

They also seem to care about their audience: Kroeger intervened with security on behalf of a girl in the front row ("She's all right, she's not hurting anybody"), sprays the heated audience with water and gets them to yell "Brighton rocks" as he films them with a video camera.

It may not fit the clichd idea of narcissistic rock'n'roll behaviour but it is a lot more appealing than the cynical attitude of Eighties metal bands like Motley Crue.

Nickelback deliver the goods but you can't help feeling the band are inhibited by their success. The support band, Default, looked and sounded like Nickelback Juniors and Kroeger's repartee with the audience was on the dull side: "It's great - I can say thank you in English, not merci beaucoup, not danke schoen, I can say thank you very goddamn much!"

His problem is, he has already got the crowd in the palm of in his hand. Revealing more of himself or throwing unexpected curves into the repertoire could alienate sections of the audience.

Perhaps after this year's success, the band will feel confident enough to take a few more risks.