It is a bizarre state of affairs when a retro sound that was once hailed as the future of rock 'n' roll starts to sound a little passΘ. Ocean Colour scene are a band that have been both lauded and castigated by the media for their 1960s-referencing sound: a fact irrelevant to their fans, who are fanatical in their support. Their Dublin fans are no exception. With an atmosphere already bristling with a seething throng of expectancy, bar a catastrophe a good gig at the Ambassador seemed a foregone conclusion.

Amidst the near two-hour sing-along that ensued, Ocean Colour Scene played a loud, tight set, drawing mainly from their multi-platinum 1996 album Moseley Shoals. If the old favourites were performed a little by numbers, it was perhaps understandable in the face of raucous audience participation - all the band could really do was provide the backing track.

Such enthusiasm fuelled the band's performance, and the energy levels stayed high throughout - it quickly became apparent why Dublin was chosen for the one-off gig to celebrate the recent release of a live album. Throughout the gig, the band described Dublin as

"a second home" and "the best place in the world, with the best audience in the world" - hackneyed onstage proclamations.

As the band has ridden its success, its persistent musical harking back has made it an easy target for criticism, but it's difficult to deny the power of a band that so unassumingly love the music they make - and in this Dublin visit they got a huge endorsement for that music.

After more than a decade together, Ocean Colour Scene are now moving towards being the grand old guv'nors of Britrock, and if in the future anyone asks that dreaded question feared by all bands, "where are they now?", the answer will in all probability be "still happily gigging" - possibly somewhere in Dublin.