For a guy who appears to embody the loner mould on stage better than say, Mark Eitzel or Joe Pernice, Paddy Mann nevertheless seemed in full control of his expansive backing ensemble, who sat there patiently awaiting his nod before filling the space between his voice and our ears with mood-swelling aural flora. After days gone by though, he couldn't help but let himself flash a grin and giving a thumb-up to his compatriots behind him, since it'd all gone so well.

Having seen him once before, I knew how little he spoke. Before the full-band finale, he actually managed to say more than a couple of words at a time, thanking us for coming, and thanking the band. Some wag at the back of the pub shouted out "speech !", to which he replied "er, I think that was it..."

As well as hearing most of the new album (of course), he treated us to strung along and dumped (to much applause the moment a few dedicated fans spotted the song starting up), and for an encore we were given the heartfelt country plastic and all day shake / all day shakes. The crowd was more appreciative than I expected, given the amount of people there - I guess they can keep quiet if they really want to.

Support was by Jeremy Dower, who looked a little like Gram Parsons (at least, I think that's who I was thinking of) and did some very pleasant-sounding sample-noodling (even if it didn't seem like very much of a live performance, but I'm not complaining), and Architecture in Helsinki, who could probably come up with some great indie pop songs if they weren't so busy changing instruments - I found that just as I was getting into any of their songs, it'd suddenly finish up. Some good elements, I just hope they can refine things a little.

[ see all pictures from this and the previous Grand Salvo gig I went to. ]