THE FLEECE is renowned as being one of the best venues in Bristol and proved this last night when Essex five-piece Eliza and the Bear came to town for a mid-week show.

Support came from The LaFontaines, who provided surprisingly good indie-rap all the way from Scotland. The Glaswegian guys combine indie rock with rap in a refreshing change from the usual fare. Unusually for an unsigned and fiercely independent band their debut album, Class, made it into the charts, and pride in this achievement gives the band a certain added swagger, But the young crowd were really here to see headliners Eliza and the Bear, who opened the show with their newest track ‘Lion’s Heart’, and quickly moved on through an impressive set list which comprised Light it Up, Upon the North, Where Have You Been, Brother’s Boat, I’m on Your Side, Oxygen, Make it on my Own, Talk and Cruel.

It’s quite hard to make headway in a fairly saturated indie market, but Eliza have ‘done their time’ on the festival circuit and have now generated quite a following of young, keen fans who – judging by the singing and dancing up front - aren’t averse to letting their hair down and just enjoying the music for what it is. Every track is fresh and fun – particularly important with anthemic indie-pop that other bands can make feel repetitive, For an encore, the boys made entirely the right choice of songs to leave us singing on the way home: Friends and It Gets Cold. With a bit of luck the release of their next album will help them move on to bigger and better things – let’s just hope that they don’t lose sight of themselves along the way.