Shining Bird were a great choice of opener; they have quite a different sound to the headliner, yet they both shared characteristics of mood and atmosphere with similarly languid and dream-like music. They are a band that realises the strength of pace and dynamics and showed they can stretch a song from a simple idea, melody or phrase into a fully developed piece of music.
Distant Dreaming, Must Have Been Dreaming, Keep Warm and Stare Into The Sun from 2013's Leisure Coast were highlights of their glacially paced yet musically rich and dreamy set that conjured up the ghosts of '80s melancholic pop and the sound of The War On Drugs and Real Estate.
Tiny Ruins is delicate music yet is in no way weak. Hollie Fullbrook set about sending a number of songs from this year's Brightly Painted One album out into the mirror ball-lit basement club and instantly quietened the audience and drew them into her tales populated with evocative landscapes, characters and relationships. Fullbrook was backed by minimal drums and bass and they provided just the right amount of restraint and, when required, gentle propulsion to the songs.
Aside from wonderful songs such as She'll Be Coming 'Round; Me At The Museum, You In The Wintergardens; and Reasonable Man from the new album a real treat was the lilting cover of the bluesy Rolling Mill Blues from last year's Haunts EP. Elsewhere she mentioned the R&B influence on another song, dispelling any notion that she only operates musically in the folk realm. The audience gave the trio the equivalent of a standing ovation which appeared to genuinely humble Fullbrook before she left us with one last otherworldly and mesmerising song that summed up the beauty of the entire performance.
