I’M getting on and so don’t normally do support bands.

But this would be stubbornness to the point of silliness if that band is Villagers, as accomplished a warm-up act as you’re likely to see.

The man behind this clever music is Dubliner Conor O’Brien whose first album in this guise was a critical success two years ago.

Its title track, Becoming A Jackal, is the stand-out here. It comes in a set that introduces songs from a new album, highlights including The Bell and the charming The Lighthouse.

Eloquent and poetic, mysterious and oozing more than a little fantasy, this lot are one big tune away from a Whole of the Moon and I mean that as a compliment.

Grizzly Bear come on to some technical problems and a crowd eager to see if they can reach the heights of their 2010 performance here.

The album then was Veckatimest, a work of some beauty and full of sonic experimentation.

The new Shields is, in many ways, a more conventional rock album.

There are some fine moments from their new set with A Simple Answer and Yet Again sticking out.

These songs are more accessible and less difficult that on the last record, but they still feel like a development. It’s the sound of a band growing up.

Yet while Shields is a good album, often as shamelessly art-house inventive as its predecessor, it’ll go some if it’s to become our favourite child.

Swapping lead vocals and showing some awkward interaction – it is the first night of the European tour, to be fair – they are the closest thing to our own Wild Beasts.

With Foreground, there is a tap of drums, a clarinet’s growl, a flicker of a piano and it’s beautifully sung.

After the instrumental dexterity on display, it’s fittingly difficult that an acoustic song thrills the most.

All We Ask is a torchlight strut, a stomach-punchingly exciting controlled explosion, a song about the crowds that light the carnival calling us home.