My Morning Jacket are the latest torchbearers of an American alt.rock tradition that embraces acts such as Mercury Rev and the Flaming Lips. A guitar band given to exploring the rock universe with a sense of obsessive, childlike wonder, the group from Louisville, Kentucky, have been around for ten years or so, gradually gathering critical momentum to the point where they are on the brink of converting cult acclaim into iconic status with the release of their fifth album, Evil Urges. This was their final gig in Britain, after various European and festival dates, and a typically long and languid affair it was too.

Amid dense clouds of dry ice that poured down on to the artfully lit stage throughout the two-hour plus show, the five men wasted no time in launching into the push-and-pull riff of Off the Record. With their long, shaggy anti-hairstyles, and nondescript dress-sense, they maintained a collegiate identity that hinged on a complete disdain for fashion. The singer and guitarist, Jim James, even had a beard. James, who is also the group’s songwriter and de facto leader, modestly occupied a station at the side of the stage, rather than at the centre, although he didn’t remain there for long.

As the band rolled towards the end of Gideon, an anthem of sweeping, dramatic highs, James began yelling and raving as if trying to attract attention from the top of a windswept mountain crest. During Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt 1 he discarded his guitar and, with a cape round his shoulders, lurched around the stage like a novice trying on a pair of skates, while the band produced a hypnotic rhythmic pulse.

The group’s willingness to move between genres – psychedelia, prog-rock, country-rock and touches of electronica via several extended jam-band workouts – lent their music an oddly amoebic quality that was endearing and, at times, frustrating. James sang in a Princelike falsetto on Highly Suspicious and seemed to be turning into Michael McDonald as he crooned the easy-listening chorus of Thank You Too!, both songs from the new album. But it was the majestic climax of Dondante, a performance that recalled the glory days of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, that prompted the most passionate response. Coming at the end of a 40-minute stretch of “encores”, the final surge of Anytime and a bashing One Big Holiday finished off the job in style.

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