A beautiful Victorian performance room, soft lighting and a captive audience - the perfect setting for an acclaimed singer-songwriter to cast an atmospheric spell and entice his 300 listeners in.
But fate had other ideas for John Smith at Saturday's show at the Howard Assembly Room, Leeds, when technical hitches got in the way for his double bass player during the first song.
While his two backing band members fiddle with the instrument, Smith cracks a few self-depricating jokes, then tells us he'll do a song.
Thirty seconds in, everything's fixed and the two musicians begin to play - and it's almost as if he planned the whole thing.
Unsigned by choice, Smith has self-released four albums, and tours extensively around the world. He's opened shows for Davy Graham, John Renbourn, Gil Scott-Heron, David Gray and John Martyn, with whom you can't help but draw comparisons.
Canadian singer-songwriter Dennis Ellsworth, who's currently on tour in the UK, joined Smith as his support for this show. They've written songs together and Smith performs one, Perfect Storm, which also appears on his latest album, Great Lakes. And as part of tonight's encore Ellsworth and Smith perform Elvis's Dark Moon - one of three cover versions during the evening.
Smith's voice is so strong that he doesn't appear to need the microphone, and he occasionally breaks out from the gravelly tone into a sweet, striking falsetto.
Coupled with his impressive guitar playing, he's a commanding presence on stage and it's hard to imagine this confident person as the sensitive soul crafting lyrics about love affairs and memories from his Devon childhood.
But he's also partial to a dark story too - Axe Mountain, a hypnotically fast folk tune which he performs solo in the middle of the set is about an axe murderer who hacks up all the women in a small village.
And Salty and Sweet, which he says he wrote for Lisa Hannigan, but liked it so much he kept it for himself, is a strange song - an upbeat melody, but the lyrics tell the tale of a girl who follows an old sea creature into the ocean.
The final song, Winter, Smith says he wrote while living in Liverpool a decade ago. It's moody and Gothic, and Smith performs it with the guitar lying on his lap, using the body and strings as percussion.
It's very impressive to watch and again recalls John Martyn, known for his percussive guitar style. He's clearly thrilled to be performing a sold-out gig at the Howard Assembly Room, and tells us he's drawing it out because he's so enjoying being on its stage.
And throughout the two-hour concert the room has certainly added to the show - the lighting is incredibly clever, with the wooden stage fittings illuminated in blue, purple, orange and a deep, fiery red.
It's a beautiful setting and Smith says he's planning to write more songs just to come back and play there again.
After such a memorable evening, I'm already looking forward to it.
