One of those gigs that, even despite the lack of deep familiarity with the source material, you know you kind of have to experience. I listened to the self-descriptive 69 Love Songs triple album only once in advance of this, a performance of the whole thing across two nights at the Bristol Beacon, but that was hardly necessary. That being said, I was vaguely aware of three of the songs from the album exclusively through cover versions (and one of them, admittedly and bafflingly, was my own), all of which feature within these first 35 songs (I’d love to know how much discussion went into whether they split it 35⁄34 or 34⁄35 and the respective merits of Promises Of Eternity as a closer or opener). Stephin Merritt deadpans his way through minimal stage banter but is a delight. The audience love the big ones, of course they do, but there’s a lot of fun in the less popular songs. There is, understandably, no support act.