The Sugar Club is an intimate venue that, in my opinion, closely resembles a 1920’s drinking den, with its near smoky atmosphere and candlelit tables. This made it perfect for Belfast-based act Duke Special’s unique brand of music, particularly for his new set, Under the Dark Cloth.

This concert is an antidote to the extravagance and similarity of modern artists: Not many other musicians would dedicate a concert to a series of photographs by three pioneers of photography: Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen.

Duke Special’s set was his usual blend of jazz, folk and pop; up-tempo music with a more subtle blues mood. Songs like Dancing Trees and Cherry Blossom Girl were subtle, slow affairs, whereas The Hand of Man and Spiritual America were big angry set pieces; their tales of financial greed and spiritual emptiness as evocative and powerful as they were in the 19th century.

The various images displayed on the screen were as enjoyable as the songs that described them: Rita De Acosta, Cloud God and Georgia O’Keeffe all had photos that displayed everything from everyday life to the clouds in the sky.

My particular favourite was ‘You press the button, we do the rest’, a playful song told from the perspective of one of the erstwhile photographers, giving a demining report on the upstarts who dared buy a new personal Kodak camera.

As well as more new material Duke played an old favourite No Cover Up, (which the audience responded to in force). Duke was joined by a string quartet, who ably added a sense of class to proceedings, and Laura Sheeran, who, in tune with the kookiness of the rest of the night, played a common household saw to fine effect.

The warm up band, a Swedish/Coleraine mix called Foreign Slippers, were themselves worthy of the admission fee, an acoustic duo who in their female singer had an ethereal quality, her voice serenading many a man in the audience.

They joined in for the final song, This is All That Matters. The sets strength was as always Duke Special himself; a consummate showman who played the crowd as well as he played his grand piano, his dreadlocks and dark suit displaying his trademark ‘artistic hobo’ look.

I would say that the distance between the warm-up band leaving and the main act appearing was a bit too long, but other than that a superb gig, and one I would heartily recommend if you can catch any of the limited dates of this tour.

Matthew Robson