Black Rivers @ King Tut’s, Glasgow, 25 October

For a band who’ve released only two singles, Black Rivers are received pretty rapturously from the moment they’re illuminated under the lighting rig. Frontman Jez Williams’ opening “Y’alright?” is met with glee by a room of Gallagher-cuts and cheery blokes demonstrating a premature pride matched only by a man at his son’s first five-a-side match. It's a pride which, however, is entirely understandable – Jez, along with brother Andy, famously constituted two thirds of the immensely popular pre-hiatus Doves. No need for crowd-schmoozing here, but in return there’s an underlying expectancy that the siblings won’t stray from their old home.

But stray they do, and initially it’s excellent. They’re swung by Andy’s gigantic drumming into dynamic performances of Ships and Voyager 1; a tidy equilibrium of writhing guitar and fittingly understated vocals which are fortified by glimmering, ominous synth. And then it unravels, the percussive slamming undermined by a sudden absence of electronic effects, leaving Jez to substitute with vocals that initially aspire to the stadium before quickly wilting. Balance is episodically restored, yet the set's remainder plays out like a race to the Doves stuff. That said, when the crowd get to explode into a communal performance of Rise, that midway slump is happily forgotten. There’s a lot to be said for loyalty to listeners, but the twinkles of what we could be hearing from Black Rivers in their own right is reason to hope they’ll cut the apron-strings when the album lands. [Kate Pasola]