Walking in to Polar Bear's set midway through a very long droney experimental piece doesn't give a very good first impression but they turned out to have a very wide range of tricks up their sleeve, making their instrumental jazz (something I'm sure I'm not alone in knowing very little about) very approachable and enjoyable with complete with great playing and some cool electronic flourishes.
The Bellagios (featuring Guillemots' Aristazabal's boyfriend) slightly outstay their welcome in the end but their enthusiastic hip-hop, if somewhat indecipherable, is funky and dancable and great fun all round, especially with constant interaction between the four vocalists and between them and the audience
Somehwat surprisingly they seem to attract more of an audience than Guillemots - perhaps it's just coming on at gone 1am which is the problem. Whatever, they choose to play a slightly shortened (i.e. only 75 minutes!) set including large sections of potentially tiresome improvisation (it's that kind of night) and yet are almost as stunning as in their full glory at King's College a month ago.
Dropping most recent single We're Here to make room is actually a great move because they don't seem to have worked out how to play it yet, and they spread the improvised songs out, although Fyfe in particular has such an amazing gift for melody that there's almost no need. Only the squealing saxophone eventually becomes wearing, but they still have everyone on their side, playing more fantastic than ever versions of Trains To Brazil and Made Up Love Song #43, overdoing the usual pause in the middle of Who Left The Lights Off, Baby? to a ridiculous degree and once again showing why Sau Paolo needs to be released as soon as possible.
(usual thanks to Ada for photos)
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