Michael Kiwanuka / Isaac Gracie

The evenings are starting to draw in now and the temperature's a little cooler as we make out to Exeter's Phoenix for tonight's sell out show. Even so, we're probably underdressed, but we know from experience how hot the sticky floored auditorium can get once there's an audience in it, and tonight's a sell out so we expect it to be steaming.

Headliner Michael Kiwanuka has drawn out a different audience to the one we usually encounter, overall it's an older crowd, probably drawn from listeners of Radio 2 or 6Music who I guess have built Kiwanuka's fanbase. Many of the audience are wearing far too many layers to be used to visiting the venue.

There's only one support act tonight singer songwriter Isaac Gracie and his guitar. First impressions are he looks a little like he's come from the days of grunge. Okay he's clean shaven but the jeans/jumper/guitar and blond locks can't help but give us that impression.

It's his first visit to Exeter, and he says he's a little rusty and he mainly plays songs from his debut EP 'Songs From My Bedroom' available in the foyer. It's well crafted stuff, but he struggles to hit some of the notes, and has to restart one song twice. He's clearly slightly unnerved that you could hear a pin drop throughout his performance. He mentions after we all hear a conversation by the door, that he doesn't usually get this much attention and thanks us for it. Clearly his influences include Jeff Buckley and perhaps that frail grunge look isn't an accident. He's off stage with nearly 45 minutes break before the main event.

Next up it's Michael Kiwanuka showcasing just two tracks from his four year old debut album 'Home Again'. Both 'Tell Me a Tale' and the breakout tune 'I'm Getting Ready' are well received by an audience who clearly know more than just songs from his Mercury nominated second album, this year's 'Love & Hate' which does dominate the set list.

There's artistry to tonight's show, the performance starts with just the keyboard player, Kiwanuka introduces his band twice but I still don't catch their names I'm too busy applauding them. It's a little like a classic soul band introduction as members of the band join him and then Michael Kiwanuka arrives with his guitar and we're treated to some great bluesy licks.

The band consist of a drummer and a percussionist, a bass player, and a second guitarist sporting a massive afro. He joins Kiwanuka in creating spiralling riffs that fuse blues and afrobeat. Fingers fly up and down the fretboard without a single buzz of a fret – this is intricate dazzling stuff. The set flies by, and the anticipation builds as we all wait for the big number pay offs of the tunes that have had a lot of airplay.

At times they spiral out into soaring rock blues riffs at others they merely underpin the sparse structures wrought by bass and percussion. The music is well crafted and the crowd reverential. Like Isaac before him, Kiwanuka thanks the crowd for being so attentive. There's no phones in the air throughout tonight either. At times, mainly with the older songs it's just Kiwanuka to us at others it's the full groove ensemble.

Obviously by the time we get to 'Black Man in a White World' the audience are all on board as the music blossoms to something approaching gospel psychedelia, and from then on Kiwanuka can do no wrong. Before the end of 'Father's Child' the band slowly disassemble, reversing the beginning as one by one they put down their instruments, step away and leave the stage. We're left wanting more, the house lights don't come on, and we realise this is an encore moment.

Claps, cheers and stomps are rewarded with a Prince cover 'Sometimes it Snows in April' before the hand clap sing along moment that is 'Love & Hate' which has been banging around my head all day. It's not just me it seemed almost to be silently in the air all night long, with those buying a drink at the bar humming 'Baddum Baddum ba ba Baddum bum' and those in the beer garden providing a similar refrain! Once properly spilling from the speakers it's a glorious anticipated conclusion with both guitars wailing out into the night, and the crowd providing the backing vocals.

Kiwanuka promises to return, but I suspect his upward trajectory on the basis of tonight's show would suggest arena tours await him now.

A fantastic night of musicianship that firmly faces into the future whilst picking up the flavours of classic Afrobeat, Afroblues, and retro-psychedelia – Kiwanuka and his band are a vintage classic in the making, that tonight they deliver us even more than the Danger Mouse produced latest album offered.

Set list:

Cold Little Heart
One More Night
Tell Me a Tale
Falling
Black Man in a White World
I'll Never Love
I'm Getting Ready
Rule the World
The Final Frame
Father's Child

Sometimes it Snows in April
Love & Hate