TECHNOLOGY for live music may improve but the combination of sound and vision can still prove ridiculously challenging.

Two concerts of contrasting size and dimension last weekend affirmed the fickle hand of entertainment at the flick of a switch.

Nebraskan Josh Rouse delivered an exemplary singer-songwriter’s set on Saturday night in the converted cinema of Pocklington Arts Centre, where he and support act Tim Keegan had previously played a show a decade earlier. Keegan set the ball rolling, playing solo, convivial and witty, as he introduced songs from his imminent new album, The Long Game, and explained his time out from the English Americana scene on parental duty since the demise of his band Departure Lounge (presumably the other members had finally left the lounge).

Keegan is back to peak form, by the way, his warm voice and arch guitar such a joy on The Loneliness Of Cowardice, Honeysuckle Rose and especially The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much.

Clarity of sound, an ideal volume level and audibility may be easier to achieve in a small venue, but all such details were nevertheless spot on for Rouse, whose quietly spoken dry humour and relaxed storytelling complemented songs from his new “surreal expat therapy record”, The Embers Of Time, and a catalogue that runs to 11 albums.

Resident in Spain for a decade, he was accompanied by a Valencia lead guitarist and bass player and a Nashville drummer, whose regular recourse to brushes so suited the songs and setting alike. Frankly, this was as perfect as a concert of this ilk could be and yet again Pocklington Arts Centre excelled as one of the gems of the Yorkshire live scene.