Delorentos at Vicar Street, Dublin, 12th December 2014

“Welcome to the last night of the ‘Night Becomes Light’ Tour!” announces Ronan Yourell to an eager Vicar Street crowd, before launching into Forget The Numbers from the titular album.

Yes, Delorentos are back with one of the Irish albums of the year: a delightful indie-pop gem full of energy and melody.

A Friday night during the Christmas party season means that this is a crowd that are well up for it and well on it. The fact is that it takes the boys from Delorentos a while to hit their stride. The first four songs come and go without much fanfare.

Despite Delorentos being veterans of the live music scene in Ireland, it still feels like watching your favourite college band suddenly transported to a large stage. It’s not until Home Again, when Kieran McGuiness announces that he’s very recently becoming a proud father that the mood suddenly changes. An emotional surge from the crowd is met, and equalled, by the band. The four-part harmony of the song is genuinely impressive live.

Next up is Valley Where the Rivers Run, where drummer Ross McCormick takes over vocal duties from behind his drum kit, accompanied by an acoustic guitar. Without a front-of-stage focal point, the crowd chatter nearly drowns him out, but once the rest of the band join in, order is restored and we are treated to a stirring rendition.

Ironically one of the performances of a night when their new album is the focus is the title track of their last album, ‘Little Sparks’. You simply can’t help but get swept up in the slow build. The band definitely grow into this performance as the night goes on, brimming with confidence by the time they storm through recent single Show Me Love.

Everybody Else Gets Wet is introduced by Kieran as the band’s attempt “to write a song to get us played on the radio, but we made a balls of it”. Meanwhile Stop from 2007’s ‘In Love with Detail’ brings about one of the biggest sing-alongs of the night. One of the biggest, but not the biggest. That accolade is saved for Secret from ‘You Can Make Sound’. This is helped by Kieran and Ronan’s rather impressive synchronised bouncing, which is emulated by the crowd.

As the band leave the stage, roses are flung at them opera-style. Obviously being new to rose-related adulation, Ronan sticks the rose down the back of his shirt as he walks off stage. That can’t be the most comfortable place for it.

The encore comprises Dublin Love Song and Did We Ever Really Try before support act The Academic join them on stage for what, given the time of year, seemed likely to be a Christmas Song.

Actually it was Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark, in homage to their support slot with the Boss in 2013 in Kilkenny. With the population on stage swollen to eight, sharing instruments and vocal duties, it still managed to feel quite Christmassy.