Live Review: London Grammar

Imagine this: you enter a ticket ballot to see London Grammar in an undisclosed Australian location, cross your fingers, and two weeks later find out its going to be in your very own Sydney. And they will be playing new material on stage for the first time.

This dream came true for a few hundred fans Thursday evening beneath the vaulted, art deco ceiling of Paddington Town Hall. It's rare that a punter has the opportunity to see a big name in an intimate setting, and even more rare that they aren't packed in like sardines. With room to move and sway, the set felt extra special; like an intimate show put on by your good mates. And if you can go by what Hannah Reid told her rapt and impossibly attentive audience - "Australia made our career, and we are so thankful for that" - this secret show was meant to have that effect.

The acoustics may not have been perfect, but Reid's voice was. Moving through the set she never faltered, meeting each of her soaring highs with crystal clear pitch and emotion. Between tracks, she was chatty and warm. When introducing the brand new Rooting For You, she explained with an embarrassed chuckle: "We didn't know 'rooting' meant something else here!" When returning for an encore, Reid met her audience's roaring enthusiasm with refreshing earnestness: "Sorry about that. I don't understand encores."

This candidness carried through the encore. At one point they broke between tracks to have a chat and then announced that they had decided to play some brand new material. They didn't say what it was called but it was promising for the new album to come; dark mixing and distortion brewed like an approaching storm and the flashing snare effects landed like lightning.