Pity poor Beach House. The 'veterans' of a couple of albums, they've found themselves playing second fiddle on a UK tour to young upstarts Fleet Foxes.
They handle it gracefully enough with a short but pleasant set of noir-ish originals and one cover – of a Daniel Johnston song – that's perfectly attuned to singer Victoria Legrand's husky cross between Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval and the desolate croak of Marianne Faithful.
A reverential hush descends on the club, however, for the arrival of Fleet Foxes. Five twentysomethings from Xachua'Bsh, Washington, they are the hottest ticket in town at the moment thanks to excited word of mouth about their EP Sun Giant and eponymous debut album.
Admirable as both those records are, it's in the – luxuriantly bearded – flesh that this band excel. Striking up an immediate rapport with the audience with some introductory banter, they launch into Sun Giant and immediately Robin Pecknold, Nicholas Peterson, Skyler Skjelset and Christian Wargo's harmonies soar.
White Winter Hymnal is even more startling – like the Beach Boys fronted by Roger McGuinn or a dream partnership between Crosby, Stills and Nash and the late Jeff Buckley.
Your Protector shows the band's rockier side while a solo Pecknold melds Judee Sill's flower child ballad Crayon Angels with their poignant album-closer Oliver James.
A melancholy streak also runs through Tiger Mountain Peasant Song, with its lyric about "staggering through premonitions of my death" and "I am turning myself into a demon", but there's no way the band could end this concert on a downer – and indeed they don't, bidding farewell instead with a hippie ode to fraternal love, Blue Ridge Mountains.
This band of brothers will go far.

Listen to Beach House here

Listen to Fleet Foxes here