MONEY @ The Dancehouse, Manchester, 9 November

The last time this reviewer saw MONEY play it was in an unusual venue – the centuries-old, borderline dilapidated Platt Chapel in Fallowfield – so it seems fitting that our next encounter would take place in similarly incongruous surroundings; the beautiful Dancehouse Theatre on Oxford Road seldom plays host to shows like this one. The band have come an awful long way since our paths last crossed in late 2011, when they topped a stellar Now Wave bill; their terrific debut, The Shadow of Heaven, met with rave reviews upon release in August, and accordingly dominates the set tonight.

The Shadow of Heaven is an immaculate-sounding record: the production is near-flawless, with every aspect of the instrumentation melding together gorgeously to create the kind of dream-pop soundscapes that characterise the album – every twinkling guitar line and placid vocal is captured with impressive delicacy. The band are largely successful in translating that balance between the epic and the intimate to the live arena tonight, but there’s a sloppiness to frontman Jamie Lee’s stage presence that’s equal parts surprising and endearing; the man has the air of a genuine rogue.

Arriving ahead of his bandmates and delivering a stirring solo rendition of Pogues classic A Pair of Brown Eyes, Lee carries off the evening’s performance with a swaggering eccentricity; there’s a much rawer quality to his vocals live, but it only serves to enhance the emotional resonance of the songs – the howled climax to Letter to Yesterday is a case in point.

Bluebell Fields is the highlight. It’s to Lee’s credit that he can seem so caught up in the haunting quality of his own falsetto just moments after engaging in amusing, if inane, chatter with the crowd, and a testament to his bandmates that they’ve done justice to their intricate recorded sound on stage. It’s a difficult performance to pick fault with. MONEY are the most exciting band that Manchester’s produced in many a long year, and to have witnessed their fledgling years has been a pleasure. [Joe Goggins]