I arrived at The Haunt pretty early to hear the familiar sound of Jacko Hooper, who had bagged the opening slot for the Brighton leg of Luke's UK tour to promote the album. Jacko's music gets a lot of spins in the BrightonsFinest office, but I couldn't recall seeing a whole set live before. He was doing a good job of keeping an audiences attention even as they arrived. Songs like Egg Shells seemed to be played harder and tougher – although perhaps that was the sound on the night. This was an intimate show, three singer-songwriters plying their craft on mostly acoustic instruments, but the sound was large: big guitars and in your face vocals for each act. Jacko seemed to work this to his advantage, playing the meat of a song harder and then retreating to a much softer place for the bridge, drawing the crowd in. It was a fine performance doing a great job with a difficult slot. Perfect until the last song, he had them eating out of his hand but a hasty retune for the last number meant the guitar wasn't quite right and the song suffered a little.
 
Karima Francis strutted onto the stage looking like a rocker from the time of The Ramones in a vintage leather jacket and tight curls. There was something familiar about this performer with her powerful voice and reverb-soaked telecasters, a quick web search and I found out she'd been tipped for the top in 2009 – much like tonight's headliner, who has topped this years next-big-thing poll. Chasing the big time had led to her appearing on Jools Holland before a serious bout of anorexia put her in the hospital and she was, sadly, quickly forgotten. She has a great presence on stage, she has a great way with the crowd, she's funny and sincere. Her big voice powers her songs right to the back of your skull, all hanging on layers of reverb and delay that she controls from an impressive looking effects board. There's a naivete and a vulnerability hiding beneath the powerful delivery and the audience lap it up with pin-drop silence and reverence. The reviews I looked up of her previous work often cite Tracy Chapman as a similar artist but I feel like this is a lazy comparison. Maybe I'm crazy, and maybe it's the leather jacket again but I feel like she's some sort of hybrid between Jeff Buckley and Bruce Springsteen, these sound like arena-ready songs stripped back to the bare essentials.
 
Luke Sital-Singh begins his set alone at the piano playing a song I don’t recognise called 'Dark' – it's an intimate song and a scene setter for the rest of the evening but the audience are already as hushed as they can get, at this stage, giving Luke their full attention. He's in fine voice and he quickly follows with a single from the album. For 'The Greatest Lovers', apparently written for the woman he has just married, Luke is joined by Brighton singer-songwriter Paul Steel, who fills out the sound throughout the evening with backing vocals, bass, guitar and the bass stops from a synth organ (although not all at the same time obviously)! When I'd read that Luke had decided to tour without drums I was wondering how they would pull off the grandness of the albums rousing, fully orchestrated moments, but here with these accoutrements they do a fine job of filling the room. Throughout the set Luke returns to a solo rendition of a song before building back up to a crescendo over a couple of songs with Paul and then stripping back down again. It's a good trick and it works, keeping the audience attentive and taking them on a journey with the songs. I feel like '21st Century Hearbeat' is the only song in the set that really misses it's drum beat – it's one of my favourites on the album but live the verses seem to lack a clear pulse, although the choruses lift well.
 
Three tracks in and Luke tells us he's really glad to be playing to an audience that listens after having played a lot of festivals this summer to inconsiderate crowds hyped on the festival spirit. He decides that tonight is going to be the first night of his own festival: 'depresstival' where everyone listens to depressing confessional music, drinks red wine and gets to feel really sad. There's a self-deprecating charm and an extremely dry wit on display, but Luke's clearly touching on some uncomfortable experiences. His brand of intense, intimate music is not for everyone and I can imagine it has been difficult trying to conjure up the same atmosphere as we experience tonight in an open field full of drunken hedonists. Highlights of the set include another song I'd not previously heard called 'Luna' which, Luke tells us, is about a killer whale – for no apparent reason – “I ran out of things to write about, clearly”, but it's a great song and includes some lovely vocal harmonies with the assistance of Mr Steel. 'Bottled Tight' and 'Nothing Stays The Same' are the uplifting crowd pleasers you would expect them to be, but the really astonishing moment for me is a heartbreaking rendition of 'Nearly Morning' where his yearning voice reaches its most beautiful. Unfortunately I don't think the last song of the night, 'Fail For You', quite hits the same resonance and there's a slight sense of surprise from the crowd when he doesn't come back out for one more. It's another night at The Haunt for me where the curfew seems too strictly observed as the music ends at something like quarter to ten – but then again perhaps Luke had had too much depresstival for one night. I leave the venue quite moved and meander home in a melancholy mood watching the super-moon reflect off the sea. Luke's made a cracking album and he can deliver to a room full of faithful attentive listeners but I worry that he's not broken through in the way he was expected to, or the way Karima was tipped to five years ago. Perhaps those critics polls are a poison chalice for a promising talent – heaping too much expectation on young shoulders. Perhaps, but really it is the music that matters and if it's good, and I think Luke's is, we'll keep listening.
Adam Kidd