The War On Drugs @ O2 Academy, Edinburgh, 18 Apr

The lights and sprung floor of the Barras. The famous stairs of King Tut's. Even the arch of the SEC Armadillo. Scotland has no shortage of iconic venues, so pity The War On Drugs, whose world tour supporting last year’s excellent I Don’t Live Here Anymore finds itself adrift in what is surely one of the less impressive venues they have seen on their travels.

Despite an extensive refit, the former Corn Exchange – now rechristened the O2 Academy Edinburgh – still doesn’t quite manage to shed the impression that it's a conference centre that happens to be hosting a rock band for the evening. Still, with the better part of 3,000 tickets sold on each night of their two-night stay, the band probably don’t care too much.

Tonight’s openers Lo Moon seem to struggle to get out of first gear, but after a short break the lights go down and, bathed in purple, The War On Drugs take to the stage and the lights gradually fade to red as they accelerate through Old Skin. Frontman Adam Granduciel is chief songwriter, studio mastermind and onstage focal point, a role that he has grown into with each record. Tonight he is accompanied by a six-piece backing group who bulk out his E-Street Band fantasies with plenty of extra guitar, keys and sax.

Lyrically, Granduciel is most often to be found lost in a dream or on the road someplace, though as he’s grown older his writing has gained some more interesting wrinkles, while vocally his take on Bruce Springsteen’s mid-range, sing-it-to-the-back rows baritone makes him a believable everyman. With his shaggy hair, blue denim jeans and tendency to lurch around the stage wielding his vintage guitars like a hammer, it’s another living legend, Neil Young, that he most brings to mind.

Tracks from every War on Drugs album, bar their low-key debut, are given an outing, with the biggest and best songs getting the crowd to sing along or leap along to their epic guitar codas. Still, over two hours the effect can be a little overwhelming. Almost every War on Drugs song starts as mid-tempo heartland rock before building to a soaring riff or a spidery solo. As with their records, it’s clear that these songs are impeccably constructed but the weight and density of the sound can be smothering.

Dynamic variation comes from the melancholic piano-led Living Proof and the upbeat acoustic guitars of The Waterboys’ A Pagan Place but it’s fair to wonder whether, the odd sax solo aside, the seven-piece could stretch themselves a little more. Nevertheless, when Red Eyes or Under the Pressure hit, there are few contemporary bands better at wailing away on vintage gear in front of a PA system that probably costs more than your house.

Of his 1972 smash hit Heart of Gold, Neil Young once wrote: “This song put me in the middle of the road. Traveling (sic) there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch.” Perhaps The War On Drugs could stand to put a few dents in the chrome too.