Storm Darragh might be raging outside, but tonight downstairs at Clwb Ifor Bach there’s a really very good band stirring things up in the form of London’s Our Girl. Fronted by Soph Nathan – also guitarist in The Big Moon – this three-piece, who have two extra additions live, are surprisingly underrated. Their second album The Good Kind was released last month, and the songs played tonight sound excellent – and at home live with their companions from the trio’s first album, 2018’s Stranger Today.

The band open their set with It’ll Be Fine before heading into Being Around. “Hello, we’re Our Girl,” Nathan begins. “Thank you for listening during the storm! We didn’t know if anyone would.” Recent single Relief goes down well, even with Nathan breaking a guitar string – “It’s the storm! We’d just gotten really smooth and tight as well!”

Minormishaps notwithstanding, when the likes of I Don’t Mind and Who Do You Love are aired, the band sound in top form: tight and in perfect sync all night, even with an extended gap before Level as Nathan retunes her surviving guitar (“This is when I’d usually swap guitars”). Before The Good Kind’s title track, Nathan acknowledges the new album, promising more songs from it into the bargain, and these songs really come to live life in the most magnificent way. 

Before the evening finishes with Something About Me Being A Woman, Nathan thanks us once more for facing the weekend’s conditions head-on: “Are you guys all really local or just really brave?” The weather may be miserable but tonight’s show is full of more great songs than Cardiff’s got freshly fallen trees. 

Our Girl, Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Sat 7 Dec

words JOSHUA WILLIAMS photos JAMIE LEE CULVER