There was something defiantly uncool about Ben Kweller as he walked onstage as Komedia’s first Great Escape headliner of 2012.

Whether it was his unruly mop of curly hair, his cutoff denim waistcoat and black band T-shirt combo, or the tight red jeans that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Spinal Tap video it’s hard to say – but there was a definite shuffle towards the doors by some of the crowd’s hipper contingents.

But then Kweller clearly wasn’t trying to convert the scenester crowd. This is a musician who wears his love of classic American rock on his sleeve, who isn’t afraid of a guitar solo and knows how to end a song properly in the stadium manner.

He may be a purveyor of lyrics such as, “I need you bad, I need you here, to take away all my pain and fear,” but it’s very hard not to sing along.

Indeed virtually every song in his set became an instant anthemic earworm, which was almost impossible to dislike, from the brilliant Wasted And Ready to the piano-driven newbie Gossip.

In a world where everyone is trying to push the sonic envelope, it was refreshing to hear some arm-pumping guitar chords and rock just like they used to make it.

When Kweller mentioned he was selling copies of new album Go Fly A Kite after the show, someone remarked, tongue-in-cheek, “Perhaps we should buy a copy, play it in the car with the windows down.”

What on earth would be wrong with that?