Considering that the American rock press usually finds something positive to say about even the most world-class dullards, its description of Matchbox 20 as "bland and faceless" suggests that this Florida five-piece must be in a class of their own. When Spin magazine canvassed the audience at one of their gigs, few could even name singer Rob Thomas. This is pretty good going, given that Thomas also wrote and sang the lead vocal on Carlos Santana's 13-weeks-at-number-one hit Smooth.

But Matchbox 20's impressive showing in the dullness olympics has actually proved a boon. Sounding like a facsimile of every middling rock outfit from Semisonic to the E Street Band on Springsteen's day off, they've roped in a huge US constituency hungry for melodic mall rock performed by the dudes next door (whose only concession to the 21st century is goatees and pink shades, to complement their traditional schlepwear). Their debut, Yourself or Someone Like You, sold 14m.

Despite this, their media profile in the UK is nil, so it's an achievement to have sold out the Apollo on only the second London date of their career. During the long interval - caused by an unannounced bomb scare backstage - a fan explained to me that high audience numbers were less surprising than they seemed. Matchbox 20 are apparently on heavy rotation on MTV. So that was why the entire house rose to the first gravelly chords of Angry, from the new album Mad Season, and stayed risen through the dozen or so soundalikes that followed. That MTV magic was also probably responsible for the howls that greeted Thomas's jape: "We were coming in from the airport and saw a poster for our new single, Bent, and we thought, damn, over here that's like calling it Poofter."

There's not much to say about the music, which was warm, affable and as "bland and faceless" as promised. The tunes that possessed a smidgen of character were those that sounded like other people's stuff - If You're Gone, for instance, evoked Springsteen in ballad mode, while Crutch's chewable desolation was indebted to REM. If you hadn't heard either of those artists, you might think Matchbox 20 had uncovered a seam of yearning, old-style guitar rock that can hold its own against more fashionable competitors.

But does anyone, including themselves, really think that these obviously nice guys are doing anything even vaguely original?

Matchbox 20 play the Old Fruit Market, Glasgow (0141-287 5511), tomorrow.