It was a little ironic that the younger of the two British indie-rock bands playing at Fort Canning on Wednesday night should have exuded the more old-school vibe.

Though the members of The Vaccines are in their early 20s, the two-year-old London quartet's music owes much to the basic power chord riffings of 1970s punk bands such as The Ramones and reverb- laden harmonious vocals of 1960s pop groups.

Brit Award-winning Kasabian, on the other hand, have been around for about 15 years and have members who are at least a decade older. Yet, their music was a generally more modern mix of dancey, electronic rhythms mixed with guitar-based rock 'n' roll.

Both were playing here for the first time but it was clear that headliners Kasabian - named after Charles Manson's getaway driver - delivered a more satisfying and entertaining set.

The Vaccines came on first at 8pm and delivered a solid, if a little derivative, 50-minute set that was mostly culled from their only album, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines', released in March last year.

On popular single If You Wanna, for example, frontman Justin Young sings the refrain, 'But if you wanna come back it's all right, it's all right', in a melody that harks back to the early, less complicated days of pop and rock - when a catchy, singalong chorus and three to four chords were all that mattered.

Recycling ideas is nothing new in rock music, of course, and going retro has always been in fashion, especially in indie music. But The Vaccines would have to cast their net wider to justify all the buzz that they have been getting in the British music press.

While undeniably tight, the young band need more stage moves and interaction with the audience to become a compelling live act.

Kasabian came on at 9.30pm with the swaggering beat and rhythm of Days Are Forgotten, the first single off their fourth and latest album Velociraptor!, and immediately roused the 6,000-strong crowd, many of whom are in the same age category as the band members.

Guitarist, sometimes singer and main songwriter Sergio Pizzorno, 31, perfected the scruffy rock star look to a T - lanky, shaggy-haired and dressed all in black.

Unlike most rock stars, though, he was neither sullen nor aloof and, together with singer Tom Meighan, dedicated in getting the crowd to sing along, wave their hands, dance and jump along to their electro-rock tunes.

Short-haired Meighan, also 31, endeared himself to the local audience when he related how his mother and grandparents used to live in Singapore, and dedicated a pretty ballad, Goodbye Kiss, to his family.

Still, it was telling that the mood of the crowd visibly dampened when the less-recognisable songs off the new album were played, and only picked up at older and more famous tunes such as Club Foot and L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever), off their eponymous 2004 debut album.

Happily, their 95-minute show ended on a high note, when they started playing highly danceable tunes such as Switchblade Smiles and Vlad The Impaler.

With a hyperactive light show and potentially epilepsy-inducing strobe effects, the final part of the show felt more like a euphoric, high-energy rave than a rock concert, with plenty of fans still singing along to the melodies of an extended version of show closer Fire even as the band exited the stage.

Exhilarating, swaggering and triumphant.