The War On Drugs, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Enjoying excellent sound in Edinburgh's finest live venue the touring sextet of The War On Drugs brought Lost In The Dream to a near sell-out Scottish crowd for the second time in only four months.

Appearing before a crescent channel shape backdrop of ever changing colours there was at times a feeling that you were watching a performance from some Seventies TV showcase, something the transparent orange drumkit with Charlie Hill sat behind it like a diminutive John Bonham did little to dispel. Seldom has a drummer drawn my attention from the foreground players as much as his performance did last night, although having an elevated position from which to watch the show obviously made that easier.

Not that it was easy to take your eyes off of Adam Granduciel as he delivered a performance that really brought the guitar work from Lost In The Dream and Slave Ambient to its obvious limit. Not fully experiencing an album until you witness it's tracks delivered live was certainly the feeling you gained right from the start. Having apparently been a bit off form and irritated by photographers at the tour's Newcastle show he was totally relaxed and enjoyed an ongoing dialogue with the audience about ice cream, nut allergies and the correct pronunciation of the city's name.

As the Usher Hall isn't the sort of venue to seek two crowds per night with a club after gigs there was no sense of the band being rushed to wind things up and, including the encore, there was practically two hours of performance which is pretty good going by any reckoning. Criticism from fellow audience members on the way out of the show focused mainly on the front-loading of the set with the band's faster numbers, causing the final third of the main set and the encore to be mid-paced rather than building to a crescendo but the impression remains that the same size of gathering would turn out if they were to come back in another four months.

Support tonight came from Amen Dunes for half an hour. They also enjoyed very clear sound for their performance but were a bit dwarfed by the size of the hall and possibly a too laidback choice in terms of actually warming up the audience (or the 50% that bothered to be in the hall to see them), despite speeding things up as they went through their set. The slightly more intimate surroundings of the Liverpool Psychfest last year suited the likes of 'I Know Myself' (from current release Cowboy Worship) better but they didn't seem to mind.

Further images from the gig can be found here.