Super Furry Animals are so much more than a band. So it stands to reason that their live appearances are way more than gigs.

Less a group than a movement, SFA take their listeners on a rollercoaster ride between the inter-connecting worlds of psychedelia, political activism, techno culture, surrealism, emotional expression, and joyous uncomplicated pop.

Scruffy frontmen Gruff Rhys, Huw 'Bunf' Bunford and the band have so much to say, they can't fit it in to the confines of a typical gig - and were forced to kick off seriously early, at 8.15pm, before drawing us into their strange parallel universe. Launching into a rich seam of material from latest album Hey Venus!, we got Baby Ate My Eightball, Gateway Song, Gift That Keeps Giving, Battersea Odyssey, and Show Your Hand.

But, good as they are, it was the big hitters the crowd want, and over the course of their extended set we got pretty much all of them. The show, punctuated by a half-time break -announced with a handwritten notice reading "Back in five minutes", and enlivened with a brief spell from Goldie Lookin' Chain's worryingly weird DJ Adam Hussain - took us on a series of highs and lows - from the whimsical pop of Juxtapose and Do or Die, to the upbeat Rings (Around the World) and Golden Retriever, the dreamy Hello Sunshine, and hard-boiled techno anthem Man Don't Give ... They may have ditched the yeti suits, but the strangeness was still there - with Gruff donning an oversized lizard-eyed Power Ranger helmet and cape for a haunting Slow Life. But there was no gimmickry.

The band eschewed even their trademark visuals, let alone the fantastical stagecraft which has marked out earlier shows (which once included a tank cockpit). This was beautiful, heartfelt stuff, with - and this is what separates them from everyone else - real meaning.