There’s a moment halfway through tonight’s set where the three members of London’s Bear’s Den join each other together at the front of the stage to deliver a heartfelt acoustic, unplugged version of Sophie. With the crowd thoroughly absorbed and enthralled, not a sound is made and the harmonies and gently picked guitar soar across the room.

 

The track didn’t make it on to 2014’s debut full length album, Islands but instead features on earlier EP Without/Within. It’s a clear sign of the hard core fan base around this band that the audience are as familiar with this earlier work as any of the more recent singles.

 

Tonight show, and indeed the tour in its entirety, is sold out and there’s a big buzz building about this band that could soon take them beyond the hard core fans and to a much wider audience. Recent single Think Of England has been featured on XFM and with the next single, fan favourite Agape, due to be released in April, the momentum is picking up nicely.

 

Bathed in blue light, the band open with Elysium from the debut album. It starts gently and builds throughout as the twin voices of Andrew Davie and Joey Haynes combine and intertwine to the backing of the rhythmic heavy thud of Kevin Jones's bass drum. The touring band includes the addition of trumpet and horn players and when this is thrown into the mix, the track truly takes off.

 

Throughout the show, Davie and Haynes display an easy laid back charm, engaging and interacting with the audience. They’re instantly likeable and even an instance of a miss-firing start to Magdalene (Davie graciously grinning, ‘it was me, I fucked up’) is greeted with a cheer. There’s a louder one when they restart and successfully negotiate the track and the band raise their arms in mock celebration.

 

Accepting Davie’s invitation for some audience participation (‘Do you like clapping?’), the band lead the crowd inside the packed venue in creating the rhythm for latest single, Think Of England. Haynes takes the drums for this one and keeps that beat going throughout as once again, the horns and synths create a warm multi layered soundscape.

 

For the encore (a façade played perfectly, ‘this is our “last song”, we won’t be back. Honest!’),the band are unplugged again, but this time venturing out into the crowd for album closer Bad Blood. Again, the silence is impeccably observed and the harmonies are perfect, raising the unplugged sound above the crowd. It’s a lovely moment and feels like you've stumbled across an intimate gathering, perhaps somewhere in a deep dark Glastonbury corner.

 

Bear’s Den mix English Folk effortlessly with traditional Americana. Comparisons can be drawn with the likes of Band Of Horses, King Creosote and even Snow Patrol but what is evidently clear is that Bear’s Den have the tunes, the chemistry and the likeability to make their own way. A fantastic show from a band on the brink of something big.