Watching Mum Smokes gives you that relaxed feeling you get after your first glass of wine for the evening, with the right amount of oomph to keep you interested and listening. Their sound is similar to the smooth rolling tunes of Dirty Three and they performed calmly, keeping their cardigans on throughout the set as they barely broke a sweat.

First up Backward had a powerful introduction that grabbed your attention then progressed into blissful ambience, hypnotising the audience. Wrap Up followed with the same intimate sound, making you feel like you were listening to quiet confessions from someone’s diary. This personable nature captivated the crowd and ensured the almost undivided attention of a room almost packed to full capacity.

For Jazz Tiger, two guest musicians introduced as Alice and Julie joined Mum Smokes to play the saxophone and the recorder. They also stayed for Doubles, a song that had a particularly enjoyable base line. At The Gate was delivered in such a relaxed way that the vocalist looked like he was resting against the microphone as well as singing into it. It was this sort of casual edge that gave the gig its intimacy and made you feel as if they were playing it for you and a few friends back at home as you all wind down together after a good night out. The back up vocals for this track had an impressive rock quality. It would have been good to hear more from this singer during their set. The crowd loved At The Gate and someone behind me exclaimed their appreciation, commenting to their friend that it was a ten out of ten.

Easy had a nice staggered strumming style and it was followed by a solidly performed Out My Window, while 1949 provided a real highlight. People around me seemed to agree and again I heard some truly positive remarks about Mum Smokes being better than The Sleepy Jackson. It got better with Some Fish, a track that seemed too short – as things tend to when you’re really enjoying them.

Mum Smokes band members seemed to take modesty to an extreme, hardly saying more than a few coy thankyous over the entirety of their set. Either that or they were disinterested in working the crowd, focusing more on musical precision. A bit more interaction between songs would have been good, however, they did respond to pleas for an encore with two more songs so they weren’t totally oblivious to the needs and wants of a crowd. But throughout their gig the fact that they love and are dedicated to music was written on the face of each band member, giving the right impression for the launch of their albums Easy and House Music.