Big Thief @ Soup Kitchen, Manchester, 7 Feb

There’s a confused atmosphere in Soup Kitchen tonight. Or at least that’s how it feels: while the roomful of 20-to-50-somethings (quite reasonably) reserves its biggest cheers for familiar cuts from Big Thief’s excellent debut Masterpiece, the Brooklyn-based indie rockers are quite happy to pepper the set with a generous serving of new cuts, at times baffling the more vocal members of the crowd. Mutterings of “Is that a new one?” can be heard in between bouts of polite applause, while one witty fellow towards the front asks vocalist Adrianne Lenker, semi-incredulously, “Have you heard the album?”

It’s a real treat for those of an adventurous mindset, however. Rather than nodding towards the Americana-slanted pop of radio hit Humans, much of the new material takes its cue from the refracted melodies of the more-familiar Vegas and Real Love – bruised, other-wordly and deliciously (yet never overpoweringly) weird, they feel cut from a similar cloth to, say, Kristin Hersh’s unique way with melody and rhythm. Nothing goes the way you expect it to and each song feels ragged and distressing yet gently soothing, while Lenker’s personable yet guarded approach to stagecraft (we’re half an hour into the set before she smilingly acknowledges the audience) only adds to the twin senses of warmth and danger.

But perhaps it's this that makes them the perfect band for modern-day America – a sense of familiarity, alienated and broken by dark forces beyond the listener’s control. And if that feels wide of the mark, it’s worth tuning in for the ear-bending majesty of the guitar interplay between Lenker and Buck Meek; a fragile yet potent force that points to the buried treasure in their new material while revealing the glistening secrets of Masterpiece’s highlights.

By the time Big Thief roll out Humans to a roar of approval, that confusion has evaporated; something approaching euphoria is deservedly taking root in its place.