It is hard to watch The Strokes without thinking of the Arctic Monkeys. Five years ago the New Yorkers stood exactly where the Sheffield lads are standing now.

They had just released their first album Is This It to an eager audience who had been waiting with bated breath. They were the darlings of the music press.

The new kings of rock, the cool new band with a new sound who would lead us into a bold new era, who would champion the cause for years to come. But, like the Arctic Monkeys, they never seemed that keen on the idea. They just wanted to be five guys from New York making music for people to enjoy.

Five years and two albums later they have shaped a new place for themselves.

No-one wants them to be the champions any more, even though they have inspired some of the best bands to emerge in that time. Now everyone is happy for them just to be The Strokes.

Which is a good thing for the band and was a great thing for the audience at the Brighton Centre on Friday night. For a group with a reputation for being surly and distant on stage, they were positively bounding with energy.

This was a show, not just a gig. Frontman Julian Casablancas was in an unusually charismatic mood, captivating the eager audience from the moment he took the stage. Obviously keeping tabs on Dennis Rodmans movements, he told the crowd: "We're going to rock your basketballs tonight", then went and did just that.

The familiar high-energy tracks from Is This It formed the backbone to the set, with tracks from 2003 album Room On Fire and recently-released First Impressions Of Earth scattered among them. The sell-out audience could barely contain their joy as wave after wave of crowd surfers poured towards the stage, but it was The Modern Age, Last Nite, Reptilia, Juicebox and encore tracks New York City Cops and Barely Legal that drew the loudest response.

A great performance from a band finally being allowed to fill their own boots.