You get the impression that Ben Howard is not the chattiest of men on a good day. You would also assume that playing to a near sold out crowd in the 3arena slots firmly into one of those ‘good days’. Still, it comes as no surprise when he arrived onto the stage and proceeded to play for a solid two hours barely giving up more than a ‘hello Dublin!’

Of course, the best artists need not say anything at all; they let the music speak for them. On this occasion the music spoke volumes; mostly in the gorgeous melancholic, electric guitar-laden manner that is found on Howard’s new album ‘I Forget Where We Were’. When you’re good enough at what you do you don’t have to patter to the audience, they will hang on your every word regardless.

It’s hard not to admire the cut of his jib, strutting out to an audience that was baying for the likes of Old Pine and Only Love like a pack of hyenas, and opening with non-album track Am I In Your Light, a dark, beautiful Nick Drake-esque cut.

Fortunately they loved it, happy to hear and see the man himself in the flesh, the powerful lighting enough to catch any attention that may have wandered in those less convinced.

From there he moved on to a run of tracks from ‘I Forget…’, the audience really getting into their groove and beginning to sing along when he broke into the opening bars of Small Things. The slower, more contemplative I Forget Where We Were is met with a similarly rapturous response.

Throughout the performance the visuals are changing song after song, from one impressive light display to the next. The sound is crisp; every word he sings is clear, every hit of the bass drum can be felt in your chest.

This set of songs is broken up by a cover of Sharon Van Etten’s beautiful Every Time The Sun Comes Up. Unfortunately his version does little to add to the original, and it falls somewhat flat.

Any lingering sense that he is going through the motions is dismissed in the latter half of the show, for which he saves the more intimate performances. The End Of The Affair is as glorious and emotional as it sounds on the record; Howard drawing us in with the tale of a failed relationship sung forlornly over a gorgeous acoustic riff before the rest of the band joins to lead it into a pounding, shouty finish.

When it came the time for the band to depart and leave it to just him and the guitar, Howard looked in his element. Even more impressively, there was a semblance of intimacy, in spite of the relatively gargantuan the size of the venue. It is difficult not to get goosebumps while witnessing an entire 13,000 strong audience singing along to one man and his guitar. It was at this moment that he finally gave them what they wanted; a flawless, if somewhat stripped back, version of Old Pine.

Then, having given them something to really get excited about, he finished the encore with another lesser known track, Esmerelda from the 2012’s ‘The Burgh Island EP’, as if just to show that he could. And he was right, he certainly could. A man of few words, but of immense impact.