Gig review: Bon Iver, Edinburgh Usher Hall

THERE are artists who deliver platitudes to an audience in a rehearsed manner which is hard to disguise, and then there are those who sound like they really mean it.

When Justin Vernon, singer with folk-tinged Wisconsin alternative troubadours Bon Iver, tells the packed tiers before him “you’ve been so great to us” and “love you, guys” and “do you have any idea how happy we are to be up here playing for you tonight?”, it’s hard to doubt his honesty.

This was a pretty special show, albeit not the sort which inspired demonstrative uproar throughout. Vernon, the public face and voice of the band and an unlikely collaborator with artists like Kanye West and James Blake, hit a new plateau of success with this summer’s eponymous second album, which leaves him in the enviable position of being able to sell out gigs of this scale while still maintaining a high degree of alternative credibility. Despite the grand eight-piece band (including four horn players and two drummers) and the atmospheric spotlight-dappling from above, he cut a refreshingly casual figure in crumpled white shirt, black tie and idly-maintained beard.

His voice, though, is something otherworldly, a rich falsetto ringing out like a call through the forest during the solo RE: Stacks, lent a raw edge by the guitar squall of Creature Fear and the warm fireside crackle of Calgary, and even perfectly serving the beautiful power ballad melodrama of Beth/Rest. After the finale, a six-part choral harmony of Skinny Love backed by a reassuring thump of the drums, the audience were ready to get that deserved standing ovation out of their system.

Rating ****