Arriving at the Forum at just after half seven, after chain smoking our way through as many cigarettes as we can manage before we enter to try and compensate for the Forum’s nazi-esque security not letting anyone outside for a cigarette, we wander in to find openers Frog Eyes two songs into their set. Partially let down by a soundman who seems to have not turned on his hearing aid, the foursome fail to impress the sparse crowd who get to the venue early. It’s a shame as vocalist Carey Mercer’s highly individual vocals are lost in the mêlée and simply blend in with the standard London gig backing track of peoples conversations.

Next up are Six Organs of Admittance whose dreamy folk music fits well with the effects mans love affair with the smoke machine that continues throughout the night, rubbing it in the face of the smokers in the crowd becoming increasingly more and more agitated. In a change of touring band line up, since the last time I saw them at the Thurston Moore curated All Tomorrows Parties, Ben Chasny (aka. Six organs) decides to ditch the full band approach instead opting for assistance from a girl [Elisa Ambrogio of Magik Markers] who appears to be any indie boy's wet dream of a woman who looks pretty but can make noises come from her guitar that you wouldn’t believe. Chasney’s highly eastern influenced guitar work flows beautifully from the stage whilst his glamorous assistant annihilates her instrument creating beautiful droney sounds, which fit so well with the music whilst also providing backing vocals, and keeps the male part of the audience happy.

Dirty Projectors, are easily one of the most unique, talented and innovative bands around at the moment. Their latest album, last year’s ‘Rise Above’, was front man and only permanent member David Longstreth’s attempt to rewrite the entire of Black Flags ‘Damaged’ from his memories of listening to it as a teenager. Instead of short blasts of angry protest the albums songs are transformed into lush layers of vocal harmonies and contemporary African Blues and Funk, which are often two or three times the length of the originals. Their set, made up of songs from the album, is utterly awe-inspiring. As is not often the case with other bands, the vocal harmonies are translated perfectly onto a live stage with bassist Angel Deradoorian and guitarist Amber Coffman beautiful vocals mixing so well with Longstreth’s almost operatic style of singing. By the end of their set they have left a lot of fans happy and a lot of new ears turned on to their beautiful music.

Tonight's next act is an exclusive live collaboration between Stephen O’Malley and Alexander Tucker. O’Malley is probably better known for his work as guitarist for avant-metal titans Sunn O))) whilst Alexander Tucker, hmm, well lets see, if you looked up for the definition for the phrase “Always the brides-maid and never the bride” you would probably find a picture of Tucker by it. If you’ve been to an alternative gig in the past few years chances are you probably would have seen him support, he’s literally supported everyone going, from Fuck Buttons to Slint and from Deerhoof to Sonic Youth and many, many more. But hey, that’s not meant as an insult, I like Brides-maids! This set however I don’t like quite so much, it’s the sort of music that would be really good lying in your room stoned off your face, but in a live setting two men sitting on chairs playing two semitones down tuned so much is makes my teeth hurt for FORTY MINUTES is not really appealing especially with the amount of cravings I have for nicotine so I sneak off to the toilets for a cheeky fag in one of the cubicles.

The headliner and curator of tonight is Final Fantasy and, as usual, he's pretty damn great. Even if you don’t like his music there is no way you can deny that you can deny that he is an extremely talented and accomplished musician. Despite the fact his one man violin and keyboard loops backed by a live projectionist is a lot better suited to a smaller stage he still leaves the crowd with mouths gaping. With his set, which due to how late the other bands have run and the looming last train, is cut very short mostly showcases new material, one of the songs only having been played for the first time at the Vienna leg of the tour the previous night. With a smattering of favourites including ‘Many lives -> 49 mp’, ‘The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead’, ‘This Lamb Sells Condos’(played on violin as apposed to the albums version on piano) and the song that spawned the whole festival 'This is a Dream of Win and Regine’ he leaves the crowd hungry for much, much more but extremely impressed.