It’s in the middle of nowhere and difficult to find. It’s ridiculously small, only 100 people can squeeze inside. There are no acoustic elements to its design – it is a wooden hut. The stage is so tiny that some members of the band are unable to access it from the dressing room and have to clamber up from the audience side. There’s no bar and the toilets are outside. The seats are uncomfortable. The Band Room is easily the best venue I have ever been to.

It would appear from the way they play that it is one of better venues that Canadian folkestra Woodpigeon have played too.

It’s all too easy to dismiss Woodpigeon as wistful, romantic folkies (not that there’s anything wrong with that and singer Mark Hamilton’s opening solo set is equal parts wistful, romantic and folky) but tonight’s line up shows off their more muscular side with the songs bolstered by a full band and a sound which swells and rolls like the sea. Which is ideal as the centrepiece of the show is ‘And As The Ship Went Down You’d Never Looked Finer’, a song about drowning to death. It ends in a melee of looped vocals, distorted guitar, swirling keyboards and crashing cymbals. For five minutes or so, Woodpigeon are My Bloody Valentine. It’s their finest moment to date.

In fact, and I’m not sure if this is a reflection on me or Hamilton, but many of their best songs seem to dwell on the subject of death and loss. Either in powerfully emotive ways such as in ‘And As The Ship Went Down…’ or in the blackly comical murder ballads which they specialise in. Tonight we are treated to two songs detailing the disposal of a corpse. In such a small and intimate venue it is probably best not to catch the eye of Mark Hamilton as he sings these. It’s dark and remote outside!

Check out the Band Room HERE.

or Woodpigeon HERE.