Saturday night at the Brighton Centre had all the ingredients of a glorious gig; a homecoming for the indie rockers formed in Brighton and a near capacity venue fizzing with energy and expectation.

The Kooks took to the stage to the theme of Rock The Casbah, frontman Luke Pritchard practically bouncing off the walls with delight at being back in the city where so many Kooks songs were inspired and written.

The band immediately ramped up the energy with upbeat tracks including You Don’t Love Me and Sofa Song, while the jaunty hit She Moves In Her Own Way came surprisingly early on in a set which gradually built in intensity and depth.

It’s not really about the lyrics with the Kooks, it’s about the sentiment, and they specialise in tunes that make you feel young and optimistic and free.

Light, feelgood tracks such as Do You Wanna and Ooh La, sat happily alongside more complex songs such as Sweet Emotion, while a lot of successful call and response audience participation kept the engagement high.

A nice level of intimacy was also created with a "Prince moment" when Pritchard played piano front of stage illuminated by a single spot of light, and when later he performed Seaside solo with only his acoustic guitar.

The only downside of the gig was a slight sound lag on the large screens either side of the stage.

One of the issues of a large venue can be an occasional disconnect, and a potential big stadium moment was lost when the audience began to quietly sing a riff just as Pritchard, not hearing them, launched into the next track – although this was of little consequence.

Junk Of The Heart (Happy), Shine On, Bad Habit, See The Sun – all the old and new favourites were here and the raucous, ecstatic audience were mostly eating out of Pritchard’s hand.

When the encore finally came, Naive pretty much took the roof off; and was worth the price of the ticket alone.

A triumphant return.