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Brazos are a three-piece from Austin Texas who released our sixth favourite album of 2009 so we could hardly pass up the chance to see Martin Crane and co perform in their hometown now could we? Factor into the equation too that the band were due to play three 15 minute sets on a small outdoor stage in the sun and we had cause for serious excitement.

For Fans Of: Princeton, Vampire Weekend, Grizzly Bear.

Martin Crane is the song-writing brains behind Brazos and it’s he that takes the stage at the beginning of each mini set to perform a solo song for us. Everything about his songs seems easy from his way with words to his spoken/sung vocal style and atmospheric guitar lines. The band are a little bleary eyed after playing a late set the night before and Crane confesses that he started “speaking in a thick Texas drawl at about 4am and I don’t know where it came from”. Thankfully there’s no sign of it when performing.

It’s not long before Phosphorescent Blues favourites ‘Day Glo’ and ‘Tell’ get an airing much to our delight. The the first mini-set comes to a close with the adapted Adrienne Rich poem that is The Observer which is quite simply a marvellous song.

Later sets see the band shaking off the previous nights excesses and really starting to crank out the fluid rhythms that they’re so loved for. Non-album tracks Interlocking and Mrs. Virginia stick in the mind but despite Crane’s jests that they may have to “start playing some songs twice”, this band is not short on quality material.