Amanda Palmer @ HMV Picture House, 22 Aug

Although she’s recruited a brass band - arriving in the form of local buskers the Horndogs - to bookend her set, Amanda Palmer spends the majority of two hours onstage alone with a keyboard, ukulele, and an impressive vocal range. Longtime fans are treated to a number of Dresden Dolls songs, as well as a guest appearance from boyfriend Neil Gaiman, reading from their book Who Killed Amanda Palmer? The show momentarily trails off towards the end, with the return of support band the Indelicates who make the encore performance of Oasis unnecessarily busy. But Palmer’s tendency towards barely-rehearsed collaborations with diverse artists is part of her appeal, as is her banter with the audience, her humorous thwarting of their attempts to second-guess what’s coming next, and the promise of a secret gig elsewhere later on. Job well done – which comes as no surprise to anyone who has succumbed to her talents before.