When I arrived at Black Bear the audience were already sitting politely, taking in Andrew Tuttle’s soundscapes, filigreed as always with banjo and guitar. Tutts appeared to be juggling a few too many gadgets and instruments; there were quite a few abrupt turns erupting out of the ambience. Some of these felt like clever contrasts, but others were simply jarring. Still, the strength of his music has always been its uniqueness and his ethereal, country-tronic jams aren’t getting any less unusual. He did stray out of his usually upbeat, major keys and into darker, murkier and more gothic territory. That’s actually what other people in this realm -like Trentemoller- do, or really ninety-nine percent of ambient, downtempo artists, so there’s a risk of coming across as generic, but in Andrew’s case it just added a tasteful dash of bitter to the sweetness.

The audience soaked it all up with quiet attention which really set the tone for the night. It’s not your regular rock punters that come out for Julia Holter. It felt more like a classical gig, which was weird; are they playing her on ABC Classic FM? Local ABC maybe? Hmm, stop cutting our grass local ABC. The room really filled up and I got trapped in front of a speaker: my big mistake for the evening. Julia took to the stage with a quietly mysterious but mischievous air, one which she milked with an offbeat charisma throughout the gig. Her band comprised an upright bass, viola, drums and her own keys with the viola player seeming to handle the occasional sample and effect, allowing them all to do a reasonably effective rendition of Julia’s back-catalogue of restrained but complex art-pop.

Striking out with a couple of new songs, including rather neat new single Silhouette, the audience received them with the same rapt attention they exhibited all night, extending to quiet applause between songs and lapsing into brittle silence; there really was no talking. Holter played off these awkward gaps with a certain glee, murmuring little jokes that trailed uncomfortably into nothing before slipping in the punchline. “Thanks for having us...I’d like to thank the band...my parents … … … and wine.”

The set rambled back over songs from Have You In My Wilderness, Loud City Song and Ekstasis, which are albums I love and the whole band did a fine job. My stupid blunder, standing in front of a brightly tweeting treble speaker meant I got it all a bit nastily unblended and at way too high a volume, which was deeply disappointing. Of all the rockers out there, Julia Holter, with her subtle pop, even with her bright and pure Karen Carpenter voice - it’s not meant to be blasted in your face. The sound at Black Bear Lodge is often great and I don’t even know if I can really blame them for my experience. The lesson: don’t stand in the wrong spot at Black Bear.

Debriefing afterwards everybody else confessed what a great time they’d had, which is good, I guess, but frustrating. Julia Holter is one of my favourite artists and I’ve a feeling I missed a great show.

- Chris Cobcroft.