Vetiver @ Cabaret Voltaire, 29 May

Dublin’s Adrian Crowley (**) has been tasked with warming up a Cab Vol crowd tonight. Unfortunately, his sombre and drawn out set has a rather more cooling effect than desired. Whilst his songs are not all innately bad, he does little to activate an atmosphere. Things do pick up slightly when he’s joined by the headliners’ drummer for his last couple of songs, but the abiding memory of Crowley is one of monotony.

Luckily, Vetiver (***) have enough quality and verve about them to salvage the evening, even if this isn’t the raucous hoedown we’d hoped for. Having spent the last two months hammering their covers LP, Thing Of The Past, tonight's setlist is comprised mostly of their own folk, blues and country rock fusion that has spawned two original albums, with another on the way. Tonight’s performance is proficient, taking in all of the above genres but stopping short of swearing pure allegiance to any of them. From the two part harmonies and down paced soft rock of “long, sad lament” I Know No Pardon to the old school blues and 4/4 kick drum of Another Reason To Go, through the folksy meanderings of Down In El Rio, written with frequent collaborator Devendra Banhart: the common denominator and most impressive constituent of each is Andy Cabic’s velvety vocals. All in all, an enjoyable performance, if not outstanding, from a band whose own material sometimes struggles to match the quality of their covers. (Finbarr Bermingham)