Live Report: Nick Mulvey at Whelan's, Dublin

It seems implausible that Nick Mulvey would regard himself as a peer of Ed Sheeran. The Bristol singer has a Mercury Music Prize nomination to his name, was a founder of acclaimed crossover ensemble The Portico Quartet and holds a degree in ethnomusicology from the University of London. Yet there was no denying the mainstream strain to his songwriting as he performed to a sold-out Whelan’s – one of two dates he’d packed at the Wexford street venue.

Singer-songwriters tend to be received with hushed appreciation. The reaction to Mulvey was somewhere beyond ecstatic, fans singing his (often very intricate) lyrics aloud and recording their favourite numbers on camera phone. Whelan’s isn’t Croke Park and Mulvey is hardly a household name – but there was unquestionably a sense of catching an artist as they were about to springboard to the next level.

His cause was helped by the sheer versatility of his songbook. ‘We Are Never Apart’ was a twinkling torch song, showcasing his deft finger-picking and angst-filled falsetto while ‘Mountain to Move’ and ‘Fever To The Form’ were not a million lightyears from the stadium busker-isms of a certain other troubadour who stuffed Whelan’s a few years ago (hint he has orange hair and his first name rhymes with “Ned”).

Mulvey was charming throughout and appreciative of the love. Curveballs, it is true, were at a minimum. Indeed the biggest surprise was when he disappeared for 15 minutes for an intermission – surely a first for Whelan’s on a Friday night. But the cheer as he returned was more than gratitude that the show was about to recommence. It was the sound of an audience hailing a hero whom we are all, you suspect, going to hear much more from.