Much like the last show I saw, the setlist drew heavily from the recent albums "Passengers" and "The Last Bright Light". They still played the highlights from the first two albums, such as 'Spirit of Autumn Past', 'Evergreen', 'The Last Climb' and 'Heroes Never Die', with it's echoplexed guitar reminding me a lot of the late lamented Twelfth Night. An instrumental section in the middle of the set included 'Shindig', with Angela's flute playing what had originally been the violin part. They also played one new song, 'Heart Life', presumably from their forthcoming "Storms over Still Water".

Being two days before Christmas, the band treated us to some special Christmas encores. First was a spine-tingling rendition of the traditional carol 'Silent Night', sung solo by Heather. Then came a version of Greg Lake's 'I Believe in Father Christmas', and Slade's 'Merry Christmas Everybody, sung by guitarist Liam Davidson (accompanied by most of the crowd), wearing an elf's hat with Noddy ears. You can hardly accuse them of taking themselves too seriously with that one. They followed that with 'Fairytale in New York'. Finally, just in case anyone had forgotten they're not a pub cover band, they closed with the soaring epic 'Mother Nature', which has become their signature song, summing up everything that's great about the band in fifteen minutes.

Mostly Autumn pay a rare visit to America in the spring, when they headline the Saturday of the Rites of Spring festival at Phoenixville, PA, on April 30th.

Setlist:
The Return of the King/ Caught in a Fold/ The Dark Before the Dawn/ Something in Between/ Evergreen/ Half the Mountain/ Close your Eyes/ Simple Ways/ Passengers

(Interval)

The Last Climb/ Distant Train/ Answer the Question/ Shrinking Violet/ Heroes Never Die/ The Spirit of Autumn Past/ Out of the Inn/ Shindig/ Never the Rainbow/ Heart Life

Encores
Silent Night/ I Believe in Father Christmas/ Merry Christmas Everybody/ Fairytale of New York/ Mother Nature

Official website www.mostly-autumn.com.