We are no strangers to tonight’s openers Paranoid Void, having witnessed their live show (here and here). Just like a fine wine, they age very well and each time they visit these shores they bring a new level of confidence and enviable musical dexterity. Three very distinct characters who operate as a unified whole, their genius lies in making complexity sound simple and no matter how technical their songs get, there’s a strong song sensibility bubbling beneath and it soon gets the whole crowd locked into a singular groove and bobbing in unison like Hasidic kids rocking the Kotel. With bright and brittle guitar lines tethered by an elephantine rhythm section, Paranoid Void beat a nifty tattoo on our memory banks and their energetic set (think Eric Dolphy on amphetamine) is rewarded with rapt applause.

After the bright explosion that was Paranoid Void, Delta Sleep seem rather plain and vanilla. They don’t really help themselves by appearing inside a quiet storm; they tend to fade into their performance, while an over reliance on effect pedals and other technology gives their set a stuttering feel as the usual gremlins throw spanners in the works to halt their progress. Nevertheless, Delta Sleep attract a hardcore type of fan, the kind who sing along with every word and the huge choruses and cavernous crescendos afford plenty of opportunity for that. After a faltering start, once Delta Sleep reach their optimum temperature and start cooking there’s no stopping them as vocalist Devin Yüceil sheds garments (!) as the set progresses, yet the whole band are on fire and in terms of effort they can’t be faulted and they throw everything into their set and leave it all on the stage.

Despite it being a Monday evening in the midst of a bleak English midwinter, there’s a healthy crowd turned out tonight and that’s in no small part due to tonight’s headliners And So I Watch You From Afar (ASIWYFA). Like many people, my first exposure to this Belfast crew came at a festival (the band are veterans) and it was a particularly stunning set enhanced by a setting sun (as moments go, it was right up there with The Who at Woodstock). After numerous encounters at ArcTanGent, 2000 Trees and their ilk, this was my first time catching ASIWYFA in the confines of an indoor venue, so I was intrigued to find out how they’d fair surrounded by bricks and mortar, as opposed to mother nature, and the answer is very well, but when they have the opening couplet of ‘Mother Belfast’ both parts, 1 and 2) in their arsenal they really can’t go wrong. What really becomes evident in this environment is the collaborative nature of these songs; the band’s instrumental (though, not exclusively) sound leaves lots of room for the listener to infer their own meaning, and that they do. It creates a bond between crowd and performer, it’s not something you can see or touch, but it exists nonetheless and ensures that every pair of eyes are trained upon the stage. It’s something very few bands can conjure, but when it happens it’s kind of spooky, in a quasi-religious way.

As the band hurtle towards their twentieth anniversary they’ve built up quite a discography and the set list does a good job at touching all bases, pulling at least one track from a selection of six albums. Closer ‘Set Guitars To Kill’ does exactly what it says on the tin and makes for a fitting finale but, of course, the band return for two well deserved encores and leave a smoking stage in their wake with ‘Eunoia’ and ‘Big Thinks Do Remarkable’.

And So I Watch You From Afar Set List:

1. Mother Belfast (Part 1)
2. Mother Belfast (Part 2)
3. Mullaby
4. A Slow Unfolding Of Wings
5. Wasps
6. A Little Bit Of Solidarity Goes A Long Way
7. North Coast Megafauna
8. Any Joy
9. BEAUTIFULUNIVERSEMASTERCHAMPION
10. 7 Billion People All Alive At Once
11. Set Guitars To Kill
12. Eunoia
13. Big Thinks Do Remarkable