Live Review: Jae Laffer, Georgia Fair, Karl Smith

Singer-songwriter Karl Smith kicked off the night with an eclectic performance backed by a violin player and his former Sodastream bandmate Pete Cohen on electric guitar. The performance drew from a selection of diverse Sodastream tracks, including Charity Board and Firelines, combined with newer songs such as Glass Eye and Crunches, off his new album, Kites. While the instrumentation was sparse, Smith's voice was in fine form throughout the performance and got a great workout on set closers, Crunches and Everything.

Duo Georgia Fair delivered some much-needed energy to the venue with lead singer Jordan Wilson rocking out on his acoustic guitar while Ben Riley delivered some dark jabs of electric guitar throughout the set. The group's harmonies were in fine form and locked in from the start, shining through on Where You Been? and new song, Trapped Flame, from the upcoming album of the same name.

The intimate vibe of the Astor's smaller upstairs venue was the perfect place for The Panics frontman and now solo artist Jae Laffer to perform songs from his debut album, When The Iron Glows Red. Laffer and his band appeared onstage to a warm hometown welcome. Despite only being backed by a modest group that included a keyboardist, drummer and Panics bassist Paul Otway, Laffer managed to give each song plenty of depth and space to make it work in the venue. He also had help from a rotating list of guest musicians who lent their own subtle influences to each song. Alex Archer from The Kill Devil Hills came onstage to deliver some screeching, banshee-style fiddle playing to It's In All Of Us. Panics guitarist Drew Wootton came up to play with his fellow bandmates, adding some extra melody and a few guitar breaks to Write About A Thing Or Two. The band, apart from the piano player, left the stage so Laffer could perform a stripped-back arrangement of I See Myself In You, which received one of the best responses of the night.

Georgia Fair's Ben Riley came back out to add some searing guitar sounds to Right Above My Heart, Leaving On Time and Don't Make Me Wait, before Laffer and his band finished off the set with lead single, Leave A Light On, and quickly filed offstage to a huge round of applause from the crowd.