Gig review: Father John Misty at the University of Leeds Refectory

American musician and songwriter Father John Misty (Joshua Tillman) plays live at The Refectory in the University of Leeds. Picture: Ernesto Rogata, Alamy Live News.

There was palpable relief. After the previous two nights of the tour had been cancelled due to illness, Josh Tillman walked his alter ego Father John Misty out onto a Refectory stage smaller and more intimate than he’d recently been used to, after selling out consecutive nights at the Hammersmith Apollo the previous week.

Misty’s most recent fifth album Chloe and the Next 20th Century furthered what he self-depreciatingly referred to as the ‘folk rock with a Yankee twang’ of his previous four albums with one of ‘fake jazz’. Fake jazz maybe, but one with an edge, a cutting edge.

Opener The Next 20th Century is an inspired and beguiling introduction, in the main a restrained, orchestral synth track but here augmented with a screaming guitar, more akin to Nirvana exiting a stage.

Unsurprisingly the latest album is heavily represented with seven tracks putting the brass and double bass section through their paces.

A noticeable aspect of current day Misty is his willingness to use a dry and sardonic wit to engage with the crowd in between songs, getting more philosophical about life post turning 40 perhaps.

It was needed in Leeds as technical mishaps created more room for chat during Funny Girl and We Could Be Strangers, but this has been an extensive European tour and the close-knit band breezed through the delays, picking right back up where they’d been forced to pause.

Misty has grown into the most consummate of performers, able to effortlessly change setlists nightly, interact with the audience with his storytelling and constantly enrich his song arrangements. He throws himself around the stage, waving the microphone stand, the spotlight seemingly involuntarily drawn to him.

Some of the song arrangements on show tonight breathed new life into tracks, particularly those from Pure Comedy, predominantly Things It Would Be Helpful to Know Before the Revolution and the title track.

The most fervent crowd response however will always be for tracks from I Love You, Honeybear, the 2015 album responsible for propelling the former Fleet Foxes drummer to prominence. The title track closed the main set, Chateau Lobby #4 (In C for Two Virgins) prompting the most strident audience vocal response.

The encore featured a beautiful and much slowed version of Elvis’ Don’t Be Cruel, premiered the previous week in Amsterdam, before closing with Buddy’s Rendezvous and Holy S***.

In this new jazz age there was no room for the harder, throw himself to his knees tracks such as Hollywood Cemetery and The Ideal husband, which was a pity, but such is the quality and extent of the catalogue now at his disposal, An Evening with Father John Misty remained both alluring and glorious in equal measure.