Dalliance Gig of 2008 – And I think that I know the bitter dismay of a lover who brought fresh bouquets every day…
- Okkervil River at Manchester Academy 3
There is silence as Sheff's softly intones the end of A Stone pausing, hanging, leaving the breathless watching a man who's heart has broken on stage. - Jens Lekman at Newcastle cluny
Lekman leads and the Newcastle audience follow in impromptu singalong version of Pocketful of Money backing him, supporting him, celebrating him, celebrating us all. "Not for YouTube" he tells us, "This was between us here tonight". - Magnetic Fields at New York Town Hall
Note imperfect Merritt follows up Simms at the conclusion of Popa Was A Rodeo with depths of heartfelt sorrow stripping away layers of irony and smarts to a truth that underpins The Magnetic Fields. - The Voluntary Butler Scheme - at Halifax Doghouse
The end has come for the debut three-piece but the audience blockade the stage demanding that the excitement, the entertainment, the fun carries on. - Morrissey at Sunderland Empire
A few songs in and Steven departs the stage in a flounce returned coxed out by the slow cat calls of the intro to Death of a Disco Dancer. The show man buts on a show. - Laura Groves - Upstairs at The Cockpit in Leeds
Bradford's finest songstress and Ms Blue Roses emotes to a heaving, packed Cockpit Upstairs through a powerful Can't Sleep that silences the room. - My First Tooth - The Love Apple, Bradford
A scruffy man on guitar and a young lass with braces on fiddle sail above expectations with an instantly memorable Sleet and Snow burning the retina of the mind's eye. - Dinosaur Pile Up - The Love Apple, Bradford
One of those nights at the Love Apple is blow open by the fuzzed up, Albini stylings of the Pile-Up stomping through I Get My Direction. - Eamon Hamilton - The Faversham, Leeds
"This song is about Dick Cheney" says Eamon before seven seconds or angry acoustic spike of Cheney. - Art Brut - St George's Hall, Bradford
Eddie asks "Are you ready Art Brut?" before Rusted Guns of Milan shows too much of his soul.
This week has been listening to 
This week has been listening to 
