The Zoo is as empty as this reviewer has seen in 10 years of gig-going at the start of the evening. M Jack Bee is due to start and there’s a total of six people in the venue. Three of those are bar staff. So we all get to wait a while to allow a few more Brisbanites who are unafflicted by Sundayitis to straggle in and fill out the audience numbers to a half-respectable 30 or so.

Bee, emerging from backstage eye-catching dressed in a white shirt and black-rimmed fedora, proves worth the wait as wields pedals with aplomb to loop handclapping and his backing vocals around at turns gentle and pacy acoustic guitar and soft lyrics. For a soloist his sound is remarkably close to a full band, with some of the best moments coming when he sets up his own vocal harmonies. The whole set is an unexpected pleasure and the applause from the crowd when he winds up is enthusiastic and genuine.

Resplendent in vivid green bracers and a sparkling red tie, Kristy London eases her way into the evening with bluesy numbers full of drawling slide guitar. The reflective sounds the Other Halves create early on complement her mellow, dusky voice – a haunting folk song about a car crash proving one of the best. Pete Jones’ melodica weaves around the finger-plucked guitar, while London sings with an adorable Irish lilt. Near the end she and the band kick up a gear or three, injecting a touch of guitar thrash and catchy-as-fuck riffage to prove that there’s more than a touch of sting in the tail.

Sporting a grin as broad as the Nullabor, Ohad Rein – the genius behind Old Man River – ignites the crowd with his good humour and irrepressibly joyous songs. Even without Rosie Henshaw’s sitar (who doesn’t seem to be on this tour), Sunshine, Trousers, Summer and Believe It sound ten times brighter than their album versions, and new song You’re on my Mind proves a cutesy crowd favourite as Rein instigates a call and response that the crowd takes up enthusiastically. An acoustic duet for Wedding Song with Megan Washington sees even those over by the pool tables hush to silence while a poignant rendition of Time is another highlight.

A melancholy encore cover of Rihanna’s Umbrella – startlingly beautiful in its guitar-and-harmonica simplicity – threatens to steal the show. But Rein coaxes his support acts onto the stage for La, and the amusingly appropriate animal noises that soon fill the Zoo ensures everyone will wander into work smiling the next day.