Live Review: Trinity Sessions: Roo Panes

With a name such as his, UK singer Roo Panes should feel right at home in Australia.

Kicking off his first ever tour Down Under in Adelaide, the city of churches, the rising star of the British acoustic-folk scene was in fact reminded of its sister city, Austin, Texas, where he had recently performed at the prestigious South By Southwest Music Festival.

The Church Of The Trinity (home of The Trinity Sessions) is one of Adelaide's most unique concert venues and served as the perfect location for Panes to showcase his talents, his commanding voice filling every inch of the room. The audience was rapt throughout the show's two perfectly delivered sets, held as part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival. With no support act on this occasion, we were treated to Panes on simple acoustic guitars — his already sparse songs stripped back to bare bones.

With two albums under his belt (2014's Little Giant and last year's Paperweights), plus a handful of EP releases, the singer had a large pool of material to draw from and seemed genuinely pleased by the audience's focussed attention and enthusiastic applause.

Yet, while Panes' style is often slow and seductive (even confessing at one point that his songs are very mellow), he truly shines when his beloved 12-string guitar is used to full effect. The second half of the show saw the battered instrument (resurrected after a skateboarding "incident" years earlier) put to good use. Lullaby Love was greeted by swoons from the audience, and Indigo Home was also a particular highlight.

Between-song banter saw him regale us with the stories behind the songs. Glory Days from an early EP was apparently performed for the first time "in about four years", while Awoken, a hidden track on the Paperweights album, was said to have been written in minutes and largely recorded live on a digital camera (supposedly because he couldn't capture a better take in the studio).

Songs from both albums naturally featured heavily, yet a fan request saw him close the set with the sublime Open Road from a 2012 EP (we were also encouraged to watch the video clip on YouTube, reportedly cut together from a friend's Took-Took 'round-the-world holiday).

Performances such as this should ensure that Panes becomes a talent to watch in years to come. He has an amazing voice, interesting songs and — so my female companion assured me — is also quite easy on the eye.