mrph | Normal service has been resumed.

Went to see Cara Dillon at the MAC last night, with

lostdreamer666. Excellent gig, not least because the support was also pretty damn good.

Support being Kat Flint. One woman and a guitar, alone on a decent sized stage and covering a certain amount of nerves with some lively banter. The music's energetic, the lyrics are neatly crafted and often barbed ("Don't you know that time eats metal and man now, just the same?")and the feel of the whole thing is often a real contrast to Cara Dillon's melodic, more traditional folk. Songs about junkyards, cities and far more modern relationships. She's playing London at the end of April - which seems well worth turning up for, if I can find a reason to be in the vicinity.

Ms Flint also scores points for the flyer - "I'm a disorganised individual. I spent two months recording a six track EP, and promptly forgot to take it on tour with me... erm."

Which brings us to Cara Dillon and her band. Now, having turned up with high expectations (based on three very good CDs) and really enjoyed the support, I wasn't sure I was going to appreciate this quite as much as I hoped. Especially when they started on some of the slower songs - Cara launching straight into the music, without any sort of audience interaction, while the band sounded great but looked... well, inert.

I needn't have worried so much - I think there may have been a certain level of tour exhaustion/cold/whatever at work, but her voice is just as good live - and things steadily gathered momentum and didn't slow 'til the end of the set. After a couple of songs there were jokes about ironing and chocolate, Cara looking far more at ease and the band looking a lot more cheerful. We got Black is the Colour and Donald of Glencoe (with Cara commenting on the appalling lack of tartan in the audience...), High Tide, a powerful and stripped-down version of There Were Roses (with the audience singing along to the final chorus), a rousing take on The Emigrant's Farewell and - unsurprisingly - a fair chunk of the new album (special mention to I Wish You Well, Here's a Health and Never In a Million Years, which all work damn well live).

There was an encore. There was silliness. There was an embarrassing incident involving a cunning plan, a door and some beer ("just two things..."). It was good. We should do this more often, yes?

Except for the bit with the beer and door, of course.