Daughter @ Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, 22 April

With a predilection for knotty, staccato rhythms and minimal melodies, Daughter strive to avoid standard indie tropes – and recent debut If You Leave swerved genre expectations. Skittering arpeggios, chamber strings and unearthly percussion generate mood, but it's the presence of founder Elena Tonra that gives the trio identity and focus. Her voice, all deep heat and steeped in reverb, sits smartly up front.

It's this enterprise and daring – as opposed to hiding the singer in the mix – that ensures Daughter engage at depth, rather than just wash over. Tonight sees them fuel an upward trajectory that will continue later this year when they play a string of sizeable UK venues – few, you can be sure, will be quite as august as this evening's show at Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral (though most, you suspect, will be similarly rammed).

Many songs tonight begin in near silence before the band unfurl, with Igor (guitar) and Remi (drums) laying waste. Epic opener Shallows typifies their nervy ebb and flow, Tonra singing: "Come out, come out to the sea my love, and just drown with me..." Her narratives, in line with her single-word titles, espouse a blunt modernism; she builds dialogue and drama from simple, trusted materials.

Winter and current signature tune Youth are stark but enveloping: they catch fire and devastate. As the atmosphere builds and an attentive crowd loosens up, you can sense the very stone around us begin to warm. With their fiery hosannas and a wholly devoted flock, Daughter treat this magnificent structure with due reverence, its Gothic revival mirroring their own dark reinventions. [Gary Kaill]