How To Dress Well @ Leaf, Liverpool, 20 May

From the very beginning of tonight's gig, Tom Krell, aka ethereal R'n'B singer How To Dress Well, establishes his stage presence as a perfectionist with tendencies towards control freakery. He introduces himself to his audience by commenting on the temperature and, shortly afterwards, complains about the sound of clicking camera shutters (though that's fair enough). Later on, when a rogue squeak comes from one of the microphones, he seems visibly startled.

Krell clearly wants to put on a real show tonight, creating the environment exactly as he wants it. A huge projection screen looms behind him, showing short films of people, lights, and industrial smelting. He demands that the volume be turned up again, and again. We are here to be overwhelmed – and we often are. From the simple, almost traditional R'n'B efforts of Running Back and Ready for the World to the earnestly powerful Suicide Dream 1, this is a set to which you can dance or cry, or both.

Most of the songs performed are taken from latest album Total Loss, which charts Krell's journey as he comes to terms with death – from morbid ecstasy to melancholic shoe-gazing, and back again. He is often shocking – as when he looks forward to his brother’s death on new song Blue. The set culminates with loose-limbed belter Set It Right, and he departs with no intention of an encore. That would be relinquishing control, and that can’t be done. [James Hampson]