It doesn’t get much better than this.

Patrick Watson and his bandmates are an exciting enough prospect in their own right, but stick them in the Union Chapel amidst a respectful crowd, tea lights and religious history, and the result is absolutely serene – the venue and the musicians seem to be particularly suited to one another, making for a different live experience. Watson, in town to promote his third album Wooden Arms, treats the space and the crowd with the utmost respect, carefully caressing each note warmly, at times reaching such heights that it warrants a wave to the heavens from the audience

Aided by a string quartet - who only met each other that day - and a bevy of quirky instruments including banjos, a ukulele, a kazoo and megaphones, Watson elevates each croon, virtually stopping time in moments, whether he’s whistling through ‘Beijing’ or going at it alone in ‘The Great Escape’.

But all in all, it is the band’s skill and arrangements that triumph. These are proper musicians playing proper, intricately thought out and pored-over melodies, and in each song, nothing else shines clearer than these. All of the artists on stage are jazz musicians yearning towards classical, but ending up in pop, and in doing so every note is glaringly exposed, recontextualized, experimented with and toiled over.

It’s almost too much to bear, and as such, we’ll call this one of the best shows of the year thus far.

Shain Shapiro