On paper this probably wasn’t the best context for this band. Monday was the opening of freshers week and, being a catch up for most of the regulars in Tommy’s Bar, seeing the band probably wasn’t the main reason people were there, and word of a rather cheap and satisfyingly destructive ale was also doing the rounds.

So it was like a creeping ninja that Frederick Stanley Star quietly smashed their way into the crowd, stunning the audience and distracting from the background chatter. Their music – mid-West spiritual Americana come-South Glamorgan – was enough to the turn heads of some of the more cynical visitors that evening. The band eased into their songs slowly but powerfully, reaching vocal crescendos which pulled you into the melodies and the lush instrumentation. FSS remind you of jam bands like Broken Social Scene, with the charm of looking shambolic but actually being very talented and well organised. Musically they are nearer Fleet Foxes and others from the more folky-indie end of the spectrum, and there is little in Britain to compare them to at all. This was always something more trumpeted by Pitchfork than the NME – although that never stopped me spending my early 20s listening to ‘I See A Darkness’ until every last tear was kicked out of it.

FSS can create something as powerful as that – extending a warm rainbow, gospel hug to the room, despite the challenging atmosphere of the evening.

Their debut album launch, with support from Little Bears Wail and Broken Leaf, takes place at Clwb on Friday October 17. £5 on doors.