Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers

Ali 'Woodenbox' Downer has good reason to be merry tonight: his band's debut album, Home and the Wildhunt, drew a cascade of positive reviews upon its release this month, and a series of national tour dates have only intensified the hype. Facing down a packed art school bar, the frontman – a tall, wild-eyed figure with a full beard and a breathless lilt to his speech – seems slightly startled by the crowd's enthusiasm, confessing guiltily that he “got drunk, and forgot I was meant to be playing after.” But tonight is Woodenbox With a Fistful of Fivers' home-town album launch; the consolidation of their burgeoning reputation as one of Scotland's most promising young bands, so we can forgive his high spirits.

This may be Woodenbox's party, but in many ways it's more like a reunion among friends. After a tuneful but ultimately forgettable performance from Tony Yorston, Downer's former bandmate in now-defunct rockers The Cigarettes, The Kays Lavelle arrive on scene. The Leith sextet offer little by way of an introduction but as a gentle piano/violin harmony works itself up into a rising crescendo, all eyes turn to the stage. In The Kays Lavelle we find a band who up-end any preconceptions of how folk 'should' sound, crafting an intricate, orchestral vibe and capturing the same brooding appeal of Broken Records with a more subtle bite. Current single 'Ten Times', a rapidly-shifting tidal wave of a track, demonstrates a level of technical coherence rare in a live setting.

In an unforeseen gear-shift from the first half's ruminant approach to folk, second-billings The Stormy Seas bring a different energy to proceedings with their stomping rhythms and aggressively impassioned vocal lines. It's a less enrapturing performance than their predecessors' – the country melancholia of swansong 'Slowdance' feels disingenuous after such a lively set – but The Stormy Seas nonetheless rest in a fine tradition of folk rock à la Frightened Rabbit.

Despite the high bar set by their supporting cast, Woodenbox With a Fistful of Fivers mount the stage with a confident swagger. The half-minute or so dedicated to the subtly-titled 'Intro' feels like foreplay, but when they get down to the matter at hand, hammering through 'Besides the Point' and the wonderfully wistful 'Draw A Line', it makes for compelling viewing. Never still for a moment, Downer flits between two microphones; one clean, the other doused in reverb, while his colleagues bound around the stage as if possessed. His voice is a strange beast, turning on a dime from Scottish brogue to Americana drawl, and it's a refreshing change of pace from the mic-hugging and generally static indie frontmen du jour.

Woodenbox's blending of country, rock and jazz influences is eccentric but entirely convincing; trumpeter Phil Caldwell and saxophonist Sam Evans add much-needed texture to the standard folk instrumentation on tracks like 'Twisted Mile', and do so to such an extent that the two brass musicians propel Woodenbox from being a good folk band to being an innovative folk band whose relentless dynamism and impressively cohesive arrangements make them a genuinely exciting live act. Tonight is more than just the launch of their album; it's the start of something special.