Tindersticks at Brighton St George's Hall

Since the release of 'The Hungry Saw' in April, Tindersticks have played a small amount of live dates and festival appearances, including the Royal Festival Hall gig in May which was enthusiastically reviewed here. From now until the end of the year, they will tour as seven-piece, allowing them more diversity in setlists.

After an assured support set from Sara Lowes, they began their set at this beautiful church in Brighton with the first six songs from 'The Hungry Saw'. Stuart Staples and co immediately seemed very relaxed and at ease and the set flowed beautifully from the acoustic jangle of 'Flicker Of A Little Girl', through the brass-led powerful instrumental 'E-Type' to the superb ballad 'Other Side Of The World'. 

Mid-set the band played a succession of older songs including some surprises. 'Drunk Tank' from Tindersticks 1 had not been played for some time but was perfectly suited to this stripped down line up, with the brass and David Boulter's superb keyboards to the fore, '16 Summers, 15 Falls' a Townes Van Zandt cover which Staples had previously played solo was another surprise, while 'Say Goodbye To The City', a pocket symphony from 'Waiting For the Moon' was stunning, Staples completely losing himself in the song at the finale.

The main set ended with the magnificent sequence of songs from the end of 'The Hungry Saw', minus 'All The Love'. 'Mother Dear' was a highlight, Staples stalking the stage while Neil Fraser performed his memorable and unique solo. It is a haunting song, one of their most beautiful pieces of music to date. 'Turns We Took' ended the set on a high and the band left the stage to a long standing ovation.

They couldn't really go wrong with the encores. 'My Sister' was as wonderful as ever but finishing with 'The Not Knowing', which had not been played for several years was a masterstroke.

If you saw Tindersticks earlier in the year, you knew you were going to get an assured set and a mix of old and new material. Now, the band are able to experiment more with their setlists and this gig saw them looking happier on stage than I can ever recall seeing them. This was a wonderful gig and I never wanted it to end.