Cate Le Bon @ Gorilla, Manchester, 23 May

Just minutes after this remarkable, head-spinning show, Cate Le Bon is left nonplussed by the strangest kind of half-compliment when one of her Twitter followers tells her she used to hate her “faux Nico voice.” Ever modest, she rises above: “Huh? It’s just my voice.” Exactly. Heaven forbid artists as unique as Le Bon dare present themselves as they actually are. Hey, Adele – you sound a bit like Etta James! Kids – lay off the weirdos, eh?

Le Bon’s Manchester hardcore offers a more edifying response by far, packing the venue to the rafters and zoning deeply into the singer’s singular vision. With the recent, crazy-beautiful Crab Day, Le Bon dug beneath the freaky firmament of breakthrough Mug Museum and uncovered a seam of leftfield guitar pop that confirmed her as a unique and compelling figure. Tonight, she picks adroitly from her increasingly rich repertoire. Opener Crab Day and I’m a Dirty Attic come alive. “This night drives me wild... ah row, you say?” she breathes on the latter: a sensual dialogue. Manchester folds.

Mug Museum high-spots Are You With Me Now? and No God both glow in the care of Le Bon’s excellent touring band. Sisters’ drawn-out coda is a down-the-rabbit-hole jam but, as ever, it stops on a sixpence. Telepathy? Probably. She plays us out with a dreamy take on Richard Hell’s aching paean to understanding and truth, Time. Oh, and just in case – the voice? Sensational.