After some slight sound issues with opener ‘Sunday’, main support India Arkin settles into a strong PJ-Harvey/ Mazzy Star set of eerie jazz/rock sounds tonight, fronted by highlights new release ‘Waving Not Drowning’ and her debut, ‘Dashboard Dancing’. A poor cover of Valerie notwithstanding, Arkin’s set shows much promise for the future – particularly when she focuses on her own, more downtempo compositions which provide a strong foundation for the blistering Soever whose set rides high with a Radiohead (‘In Rainbows’) sounding performance full of intellect and musicology.
Spanning a number of styles, Soever’s set is laced with moments of magic, including slide guitar, flamenco patterns and popping bass (‘The Ones You Love’), lovely ‘oh ay oh’ choruses, deft guitar touches (‘I Love Hot Nights’) and perfect acoustic pop (‘Viction Infiction’), all combined with lovely storytelling and the nicest falsetto voice since early 2000’s Tim Burgess. Performance and song-writing wise, you really can’t get much better.
