Bon Iver @ The Usher Hall, 22 October

Dwarfed and surrounded by the overwhelming array of instruments belonging to the nine piece Bon Iver, Canadian singer/songwriter Kathleen Edwards confronts the vehement early comers of the Edinburgh crowd with stripped down renditions from her forthcoming album Voyageur. Flanked by two electric guitars, multi-instrumentalist Edwards’ set is charming and her sound, ordinarily somewhere between Aimee Mann and Laura Veirs, has largely been adapted well for these shows opening for her sometime producer Justin Vernon’s troupe.

In the changeover time between acts the fraught anticipation of those in attendance, some of whom have been hanging around most of the day in hope of any elusive spare tickets, builds to nigh on hysteria. The collective inhale of the Usher Hall is almost audible over the opening notes of Perth from the album Bon Iver, and as the augmented flourish of the band kicks in there comes the palpable realisation which invariably accompanies witnessing something special.

The audience response almost mimics the enormous brass section. In the midst of Holocene the crowd release a strange short unified burst of applause which doesn’t fade in or out, but blasts and stops, as if not wanting to drown anything out but unable to contain their elation any longer. Though sticking mostly to newer material, on the comparatively minimalist takes from For Emma, Forever Ago’s Flume and Skinny Love, Vernon’s emotional falsetto resonates throughout the silent hall, a reminder of what initially drew most to one of the only artists to command this sort of fervour.