Tom Vek’s Luck is stuffed full of so much sonic experimentation it pops and crackles - from the unearthly backing chorus of Vek in the background to the angular riffs that form the backbone of his songs. This strangeness is difficult to transfer into a live context though, and tonight at XOYO, he falls a bit… flat. With the bursts of rising keyboard-noise precluding Tom Wolfe-homage, ‘Sherman (Animals in the Jungle)’ single, one could be forgiven for thinking that what follows would be more interesting than a bass and guitar riff.

That’s not to say live Tom Vek is boring Tom Vek. Accompanied by drummer and bassist/guitarist, Vek whips through ‘Green Lights’, ‘Chore’ and ‘C-C’ with the kind of swagger that one would expect from a man who recorded We Have Sound at 22, the best part of a decade a go. There are riff-dischords, drawling vocal repetition, and a technical confidence that is quite a thing. Vek also creates musical motifs rather than song structures, which can often result in the pleasing effect of completely upending his songs. Verses have repeated phrases rattling around, and choruses are at times perversely wordless - a riff or a harmonized ‘woah’ filling the space. At times his material feels like one long series of bridges, codas in between climaxes that lie tantalisingly out of reach.

Tom Vek himself is an interesting creature. Born in Hounslow, he’s a multi-instrumentalist who got picked up by Island after recording his debut in his parents’ garage, a graphic design student who designs his own website and album covers, a guy who recently developed an app to help you see album artwork on your phone, before, quite bizarrely, channeling his efforts into setting up his own shortened URL (vek.to, if you’re interested). After spending his formative years being the ‘underrated’ Tom Vek that people talked about in hushed whispers in bars in Dalston, Vek is now recording in a nice, big studio and enjoying near-universal acclaim.

Whilst material from Luck retains the intelligence and humour that made his first two albums so exciting, many of Vek’s new ideas feel half-formed, and at time even grating. ‘The Girl You Wouldn’t Leave’ is an exercise in annoying your audience - one excruciating line repeated ad nauseum. As well as the fact one would probably suggest leaving it off the live setlist, it really doesn’t take four minutes to make your point, Tom.

That aside, there are still enough classics on the list to keep his audience bouncing. Strange guitar codas that leave you bemused and breathless, the combination of machine and live drum beats that leave you palpitating - it’s easy to remember why those hushed whispers began. As Vek pushes his glasses back on his nose, pauses for breath and then starts jumping up and down to ‘Aroused’ you remember that this man has more powder in his casket than ‘Sherman’ might give him credit for. Let’s hope settling into his thirties doesn’t mean settling.

The buzz surrounding this one-off performance by the enigmatic, famously reclusive, modern-day renaissance man, Keaton Henson, is tangible. His only other live performance of 2014 came at the Antigel Festival in Geneva back in February, so tickets for this event, part of James Lavelle's 'Meltdown' at the Southbank Centre, have quickly been snapped up.

For all the talk of Henson's crippling fear of live performance, the evidence that he appears to be conquering his stage-fright is promising. Despite creeping from the wings in near-darkness and the occasional pregnant silence as he moves between the grand piano and guitar, he introduces his songs with a softly-spoken charm and strikes up an easy rapport with his audience. Spontaneous laughter en masse isn't something we'd expected to hear that evening.

He tells the crowd how 'Lying To You' was written while killing time in a bleak Los Angeles hotel room, and that it was especially significant for him to play the Queen Elizabeth Hall as he'd once seen his hero, Randy Newman, performing there on the very same stage. Invaluable details for his ardent fans who are certainly vocal enough between songs to let Keaton know just how affecting people find his music.

Like so many expansive artists, Keaton Henson seems to enjoy collaboration, Birthdays featuring guest musicians on several tracks. His new classical album Romantic Works, from which he plays several songs, was written closely with Ren Ford, cellist from The Josella String Quartet who accompanies him for most of the show. The stage itself is designed by artists Clarke & Reilly; a floor arrangement made up from over 3,000 antique car wing mirrors framed by rustic wooden beams, reflecting light elegantly around the venue.

Altogether, this feels like a special event. The venue's perfect and the music gorgeously rendered live; delicate and sincere, hitting all the same impassioned lows (and occasional highs) you can draw from the records. The set is over within the hour but never misses a beat, including favourites and rarities from his entire back-catalogue, managing to be both intimate yet grand. Some may find him self-involved or maudlin, but that would be missing the point. If we all felt love, loss, guilt and fear as acutely as Keaton Henson, and were all able to express it as beautifully, he wouldn't be quite so special.